unpacking

How much tableware does it take to feed a wedding crowd of seventy?  Um, a lot.

Fortunately, we did some stockpiling of thrift store finds when we visited Ohio last winter, and now that we've officially got boots on the ground here in the Midwest, it's time to start unpacking the things we stashed and get to work doing lots of dishes.  After an afternoon of counting and calculating, it looks like we've got enough silverware, although the fork situation is still a little tight.

And we're still short on plates.  I think we'll figure it out in the next few days.  We'll just have to hit the thrift stores one more time, which is something I'm almost always looking for an excuse to do, anyway.  We already have a pretty good mix of both dinner plates and dessert plates--some of which are actually saucers masquerading as dessert plates, but we're hoping our guests will be too busy to notice...

And I added to the plate totals by quite a bit when I decided--after some careful consideration--to use my Grandma Sally's Limoges china.  It's pretty stuff, made in 1948 in Ohio, of all places, and while the set's sustained its fair share of chips and cracks over the years, it's still nice to look at.

When I told my dad I was thinking of using it at the wedding dinner, he reminded me that it was "mine," after all, to do with as I pleased.  At the same time, though, he pointed out that things frequently get broken at parties.  He didn't want me to make a decision that I would regret later.  Especially when heirloom china--or something as close as I'll ever get to heirloom china--was involved.

And so, I thought it over, and I decided that there's no sense in having something if you're not going to use it.  And if a plate is going to get broken, I'd much rather have it happen in the midst of our wedding celebration.  What better time could there be for that sort of thing?  I hope my Grandma Sally would agree with me...

Twelve days to go.  And it seems like the to-do list is getting longer, not shorter.  Our first day here has been pretty slow and quiet--have I mentioned that, now that I'm back in the full flush of health, my partner-in-crime seems to be suffering though a respiratory illness of his own?  Everyone is telling us it's the stress, but it's really starting to feel like the universe might be out to get us...

Sick or not, though, we're going to have to get moving.  I'll be back on Wednesday with an update for you all...