Wedding Crystal

Teagan Posey

Every woman in my family receives crystal glasses and decorative dishes starting the Christmas after they get married. Intricate Irish glass, often gifted from a grandmother piece by piece through the years.

My mother likes to joke that her grandmother gave up on her.

That when she was in her mid 20s, still unmarried, she began receiving crystal to use on special occasions, placing it in a cabinet, displayed in the dining room in a house by herself.

By the time my sister and I were born, she had a full set, and her grandmother had passed. a house full of delicate glass and two little girls, both destructive and fragile.

We never remember to use the good crystal on special occasions but there is no love in the life of dishes you never use. So on a Wednesday night in February, we had boxed mac and cheese in Celtic crystal and seltzer in champagne flutes and made the discovery that sometimes beauty is dishwasher safe

The crystal is forgotten on special occasions, forgone for plates that will require no mourning if and when they are dropped by small hands, distracted arms, or uncoordinated fingers. Instead, the crystal lives its delicate, lovely, dishwasher-safe life with mac and cheese on Wednesday nights.

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