How to Decide how many Place Settings to Buy
(435 Words)
When you start out, you may register for fine China or nice dishes. How many place settings should you buy? There is no one answer, however there are guidelines that you should consider when you make this purchase.
What types of dinners do you host?
First, you need to consider how many people come to the dinners and get-togethers that you host. If you constantly have twenty people at your dinners and you want them all to have the dinnerware, then you should get at least that (plus some extra). If you really never have more than a couple of people over, then eight might be sufficient.
Consider the room you have to store the dishes
You need to be able to store the dishes. Consider where they will be and make sure you can safely hold the number you want.
Consider the cost
Dishes can be very expensive. Even if you are not paying for them because they are in a registry, remember that people will buy you them for you in lieu of other gifts.
What other options do you have?
Think about what you will do if you have a get-together with more people than you have place settings. If in that case you like to use paper anyways, then the extra settings will not be of much use. If you have another complimentary set that you can mix and match, then that might be sufficient. If it is important to you that everything match, then you might want to buy extra even if you do not often use it.
Consider breakage
If you buy a set of eight place settings, it does not mean that you always will have them. Even in a family with only adults, dishes get broken. They fall or break while being washed. In addition, sometimes they will fade or get otherwise ruined. If you only ever have eight people over but you truly need that eight, then you might want to switch it to twelve in order to have extra.
Will they be available later?
Some dishes are more available, although you never can truly know when something goes out of stock. Also, if you get something classic like plain white dishes then you may be able to get something that would match even if it is not the exact same set.
There is no one way to choose how many place settings to get. Most will want at least eight, according to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Twelve is another very common number. Consider all of the above factors to choose the perfect number for you.