The things that lasted
Wedding registry items that were actually a good call
Happy 2024! Some of the newsletter issues I’ve been working on lately are a little heavy, while it feels like most people I know are dealing with some serious shit IRL. So I wanted to distract myself and think about wedding registry items instead.
My cousin recently got married and bought and moved into a new house in Chicago. I was pondering what to buy him and his wife off their registry a few weeks ago and decided in lieu of a bunch of food storage containers, to order them a space heater. This is what’s up where we live as I write:
…so I feel like I got them something they’ll use soon. We have two space heaters blasting right now to keep the pipes from freezing.
Looking at a wedding registry, it’s always interesting to see the merchandise that foretells what a couple believes they will need for their future life, from chest freezers to bath caddies, stepstools to fondue pots, decanters to fire-proof safes, gravy boats to tiny refrigerators made only to cool beverages.
We had friends over for dinner a few weeks ago and I served the main dish right out of one of my two Le Creuset Dutch ovens I got for our 2008 wedding:
They complimented my color choices because they were raised right, and we marveled at how long these pots actually last. It made me think about what we envisioned when my husband and I got married, about what we thought our lives would be like when we set up a wedding registry compared to what actually stuck around. My vision certainly involved a lot of cooking and entertaining, according to the unbiased source Crate & Barrel, who convinced me that we would need a set of whimsical shot glasses and little individual appetizer trays with notches for wine glasses and tiny fragile ceramic spoons and wrinkle-prone linen cocktail napkins.
We hardly use those things, but we still use many items we registered for in 2008 that are actually in pretty good shape, too, like the Dutch ovens. I’m talking about the things that we got that we actually use a lot in comparison to the, say, lesser-used items like the ice cream maker and tiny portable picnic table or stuff that went inexplicably missing, like all but one of our dinner forks.
The workhorses include:
All Clad pans. My mom recommended we ask for a few of these, and she was right. They take a beating, clean up nice, and cook well. Maybe once a year or less, I scour them so they look as pretty as when I got them:
Bamboo utensils. I don’t treat these that nicely. Sometimes we let them float overnight in a pot of water, some have gotten singed by hot pots or the stove. They have really taken an ass-kicking over the last three presidential administrations. I may treat myself to a nicer-looking new set but they still do the job.
Our towels. All right, a few of our towels do look their 15 years, with bleach stains and frayed edges, but the towels our kids use end up on the floor so often I don’t mind retaining some that are unpretty-but-functional. But a lot of them are still in great shape, and they somehow escape getting towely mildew smell. These were a brand called Bloomingdale’s “Collection Fifty Nine” but I think it’s called Hudson Park now. We got them in dark brown and gray, perhaps grim colors, but they aged well! I remember my friend Lisa jokingly telling me that she could never buy me something in a color called “Fudge cake” but I stand by my choice.
Our slow cooker. I just looked up the price of mine online and thought, “That’s expensive,” but I just realized it has still been chugging for over 15 years without burning the house down, so what more can you ask for? I’ve had to replace the insert once when it slipped in the sink, which is a very boring thing to have to order. This slow cooker has cooked so much chili, especially through COVID, that I hate homemade chili at this point, which is really a shame since everyone else in my family still likes it.
Henckels knives. They’ve got me through growing my family by two people and a cook-constantly pandemic. I am still mad about the 8-inch one I mysteriously lost (I think it maybe got thrown away inside a pizza box.) The tip of one is bent because I dropped it, and it landed dramatically on its very tip in the floorboards. But not my foot! #optimist
This unglamorous but utilitarian recipe stand has remained wipeable and durable for over 15 years. It lives in a drawer beneath the microwave when I remember to put it away.
China. I registered for one set of nice-ish dishes to use every day (aside from the kids/things we put in the microwave) because I don’t have the space or mindset to have dishes I only use for special occasions. The dish set I registered for is dishwasher safe and unlike our glassware that sometimes shatters if you look at it wrong, has been very durable aside from a scant few chips or scratches here and there.
Honorable mention, I guess, goes to our laundry sorter for existing, although it has its faults, and I don’t particularly find it useful or enjoyable, and I’m not sorting laundry too discerningly lately. That’s more like a cockroach that’s outlived the apocalypse than a beloved enduring friend and tool.
If you got married or otherwise set up your household 15 years ago or more, what did you get for your home then that you still use a lot now, even if it’s outlived your marriage/house?
Do you have a young adult child?
I am working on a future issue asking the recently-adolescent what they would advise their younger selves about cell phone use and when they think kids should get their first social media accounts/devices. (I wanted their opinion because I know what researchers think and other parents do.)
If you have a child roughly ages 19-25 who might be bored/owes you a favor, would you please send them the link to this brief survey? It’s anonymous. I’m hoping to provide perspective from those young enough to remember what it was actually like to be a child newly online in the recent past.
End credits
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One witchy thing
I'm going to wave my hands around and tell everyone to buy people Fiesta Ware dishes if they're in the market for china and like color instead of white plates (you can get white too, though!) I use Fiesta Ware that my grandmother bought in the 1950s; it is the most durable stuff on the market and very wallet-friendly. And you can buy it in one color or many and have rainbow plates and bowls and mugs and pitchers and vases and *all* the things. AND bonus, you can get into the vintage/antique Fiesta Ware market and *really* go nuts. About 15 years ago, a friend wanted to put china on her registry and specifically wanted dark purple plates; I strongly advocated for Fiesta Ware (which was selling a gorgeous dark purple at the time) but she put something else on instead and wound up replacing the entire set two years later because everything had chipped so badly. Fiesta Ware! It's the best!
Okay, rant over: we have a set of Laguioile steak knives that I gave my husband for our first Christmas together; they've been going strong for 18 years. Same for the cast iron pan and the two Global brand kitchen knives we bought at the same time. Obviously a good knife sharpener is important, too! And I was praising our at-least-15-year-old Tupperware (RIP!) just this morning.
I asked for a KitchenAid mixer in lieu of an engagement ring. I rarely use it but it exists. My own Le Crueset cracked and was relegated to the chicken coop.
Now, I don't buy off anyone's registry. You get married? I'm buying you a fire extinguisher and/or a first aid kit. Having a baby? First aid kit and baby ear muffs.