This is a bit of a tangent, but if you'd like to carry over a bit of the garden theme into the wedding--miniature terracotta pots make cute placecard holders. I had fun making these for a friend. Each pot was planted with Irish moss (I got a flat of it) and had a silk flower sprig and a toothpick with a sign that had the guest's name and the table number. Arranged all together, with different colored flowers, they got a lot of attention at the wedding. And everyone got a little souvenir to take home. Crafty placecard holders = a good thing to delegate to a friend who wants to help. Wishing you happy wedding planning (or at least comparatively argument-free wedding planning)! --cowper

... sounds like a plan when is this wedding

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. My daughter was married 2 years ago. She has the same glasses that you are considering. She also has square shaped dinner plates. They are Noritake's Colorwave series. She chose their graphite color but their are lots of fun colors, as well as white and cream. You can buy pieces individually or place settings. Lots of options for mixing and matching too. My daughter was also registered at a department store and it was there that she received tremendous help from the wedding registry sales associate. The clerk put together various options for dishes, glassware, flatware and placemats. It was helpful to see the items laid out together on a table. See if someone at BB&B can help you this way or go to a major department store. You can be registered at more that one place. My daughter found that the department stores ran some very good sales on her registry items which resulted in better prices than BB&B even using one of their coupons (which not all guests will know about). Just a thought. Below is a link to the Colorwave Dishes Here is a link that might be useful: Noritake Colorwave.

I was married 34 years ago. Back then, people used registries mostly for things that came in patterns -- dishes, flatware, crystal, sheets, towels. People might put on a very few other things -- a serving piece, for example -- and often there was a notation like "Kitchen is blue, bathroom is yellow. Likes glass and silver." No small gadget-y items. I know the common practice now is to put all kinds of things on, not just appliances and luggage and other non-pattern stuff, but little items like whisks and dishtowels. I literally had to sit down on the floor in the department store the first time I saw a six-page list full of stuff like this, I was laughing so hard -- it looked like a greedy shopping list to me, not a registry -- but now I'm used to it. Honestly, I like the old way better. It makes the couple seem less focused on gifts and getting only exactly what they would choose; he guests are less pressured to buy the couple only things they chose themselves; the couple gets more things that the guests chose themselves, which have a personal meaning and also may be things that the couple never thought of (and can usually be exchanged or passed on if they don't like them); and the couple's home won't be entirely fitted out from only 2-3 stores (the same 2-3 stores as all their friends' homes, to boot). Many people argue that as guests are trying to choose something that will please the couple, they should stick to the gifts the couple selected for themselves. But I don't think that everything that the couple might love is available at those few stores; if you register at, say, Macy's, Target, and BBB, that doesn't mean you won't be thrilled with a gift from Cartier. Also, if you are registering patterns, the more other stuff you register, the less likely your patterns are to fill in. You can usually exchange the other stuff to complete them, though. So I can't think of anything I put on our registry that I regret -- it was only patterns: dishes, stemware, flatware. What else would I put on it now if I had it to do over (in 2016)? Maybe a few more place settings of china and silver, although honestly 12 has been enough most of the time. A really good knife. A fine tablecloth and napkins. A good mixer or food processor.