We get this question often - and was definitely one we wondered when getting married. Ultimately though, the number of place settings you should include on your registry depends on several factors, including your lifestyle, the size of your family and future family size, as well as your entertaining habits.
Here are some general guidelines to help you determine how many place settings to register for.
Place Settings for Everyday Use: Typically, we see couples register for a more casual or everyday type of place setting, which can include their dinner plate, salad plate, cereal bowl, pasta/soup bowl, and appetizer plate. Most commonly, couples will register for 8, 12, or 14 place settings. Considering your everyday lifestyle can help inform this number. For instance, if you work from home and tend to cook meals in during the week, you will naturally use this collection more and might want to have a larger quantity.
Special Occasion Settings: Although we live according to the "use the good stuff" mantra, many couples like to register for a separate set of fine china or special occasion dinnerware. The number of these settings will depend on how frequently you plan to host more special events (hi, birthdays or promotions) or for the holidays. These plates tend to elicit joy from couples because they are bold in color, pattern, or are elegantly simple but a bit more of an indulgence than they day to day dinnerware. Again, couples will tend to register for 8, 12, or 14 of these place settings.
Casual and Specialty Plates: Consider any additional types of plates you might need, such as extra dessert plates (maybe you love to bake), tea cups and saucers (because you love people to linger around the table), or mugs (to bring a happy moment each morning). These can be registered for separately and designed to mix and match with your other settings. We do see brides forget about serving platters and bowls, which we recommend to have a few of in a range of sizes.
Guests and Entertaining: Think about how many guests you expect to host at one time. If you plan to host large gatherings frequently, you may want to register for extra place settings to accommodate.
Storage Space: This tends to be more for our city girls. It's important to ensure you have enough storage space for the place settings you register for. If you're registering for a large number, make sure you have a place to keep them when they're not in use. We also recommend measuring your cabinet depth for any larger dinner plates or chargers to make sure the cabinet doors can still shut!
Dishwasher and Maintenance: Consider how often you're willing to run the dishwasher or for that matter - hand wash. If you prefer not to run it daily, having extra place settings can be super useful for those busy weeks.
Personal Preferences: Ultimately, your registry should reflect your personal preferences and how you want to live. If you love to entertain and frequently have guests over, we recommend registering for more place settings. However, if you prefer a minimalist lifestyle or making reservations, you might register for fewer. You do you.