Wedding China

Link to Wedding China in the IMoDD Collection      Link to Wedding China Images that You Sent Us

A special virtual exhibition at the International Museum of Dinnerware Design

Goes live on December 21, 2021

Wedding China is often defined as dishes and dinnerware that a couple receives as wedding gifts.  Perhaps the couple has registered a specific china pattern at a department store, jewelry store, or big box store.  Sometimes the “wedding china” is purchased years after the actual wedding event, but is always referred to as their wedding china.  Usually it’s not for use every day, but reserved for special occasions or fancy events. 

Although it has been widely reported that recent married couples are less interested in lugging material possessions from home to home, recent surveys show that an estimated one third of newlyweds have registered for wedding china and other gifts.

Some gay couples report that gay men don’t need special wedding china because they already own so many sets of dinnerware.  They may have been in their partnership for years before the laws changed to allow marriage or commitment ceremonies, or they are older and already have all the household possessions like dishes that they need. 

The International Museum of Dinnerware Design is presenting Wedding China as a virtual exhibition based on wedding china that has been donated to the IMoDD permanent collection, and wedding china submitted by the museum’s friends and supporters.  We asked people to submit photographs of their wedding china, along with photos and stories from their weddings, and they are also part of the exhibition.

Image:  Haviland Limoges Silver Anniversary pattern (1894-1931) porcelain wedding china. The two combined sets of 204 pieces total were from the wedding of Edward and Stella Clark Heath who were married in Toledo in 1900, donated by their granddaughter Margaret Nance in 2014 and the wedding of Percival and Alice Highum in 1930, donated to IMoDD in 2016, by Eric and Robin Highum in honor of his parents, Edward and Audrey Highum and grandparents, Percival and Alice Highum.