Decisions, Decisions!

Out of all the wedding-related decisions to be made, choosing a china pattern was one of the hardest. I figured I'd start at one of my favorite retailers, Macy's! I already own two sets of casual china and both are made by Lenox and were purchased from Macy's (Butterfly Meadows & Mosaico d'Italia). I thought this would be so easy! I got to the store and I looked at every single pattern. Then, I looked at every pattern again and even pulled the dishes down and arranged them on the mock table they let you use. Nothing. Not one caught my eye. If you don't know by now, dinnerware is very important to me so I was not willing to settle. As far as our registry was concerned, I vowed to select only items that I loved and/or items that Mr. CF and I needed to complete our home. So I walked away.

Later that day, I decided to go into Bloomingdales. This is not a store I shop in often but there was a Marc Jacobs display right near the mall entrance so I walked in to look at (and dream of) all of the beautiful handbags and clothing. Since I was there, I decided to head up to the dinnerware just to see what they had, totally expecting the same selection that I had just seen in Macys. Boy was I surprised. Their selection was about ten times larger! Something caught my eye and that was that, I knew I had found the china that we would use and have forever. Check out this beauty!

{Marchesa by Lenox "Palatial Garden"}

Not only do I think it's gorgeous, but it can also be dressed up or down. Add some wooden salad bowls to use it for a casual lunch or pair it with silver-plate accessories for a formal dinner. Oh how I love it. In case you're wondering, Mr. CF is not the biggest fan, however, he admitted that he wasn't going to like any of the dinnerware I selected because he's not into that sort of thing. I made myself feel better by believing that the simple dinner and bread plates with the brown rims were kind of "guyish". 

Anyway, can you imagine my surprise when our selected dinnerware was featured in House Beautiful this month?! They have good taste ;)

{Source}

What is your favorite china pattern? If you received china as a wedding gift, are you happy with the choice you made?