Registry take 4: Household items continued

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we were less than thrilled with our Macy's experience, and were still on the search for a china pattern.

On a whim, we decided to check out Dillard's at Beachwood Place- to both check out jewelry for the day (I'm on the hunt for earrings) and to see what their china looked like.

There were several patterns that we liked, and while the registry person was helping another bride and her mom (who had made an appointment), she was as attentive as she could be towards us. As a bonus, Dillard's had a table set up with a tablecloth, and we were encouraged to "try out" as many place settings as we wanted, to get a sense of how things would look on a table. (This try out was also encouraged for crystal and flatware. I thought the whole thing was pretty nifty, as you could really see how everything would look together.)

We set down a whole number of place settings, and one clear winner emerged:

Stratford Platinum by Noritake.

Platinum banded for Calvin, interesting shape/design for me. After we found it, we kept talking about it, and unlike every other china pattern, we were increasingly excited about it. (I'm serious. Calvin is about as excited about the china as I am. No joke.)

While silver is not available in stores, it is available to be ordered from a store- and the website. And they carried our pattern (at a cheaper price than Macy's!). We were sold on Dillard's. Having also gone through the registry process at three other stores, we decided to do this one completely online.

The online registry is the most awesome registry we have come across. Seriously. It is smart about adding/removing items, and is updated instantly. And we have yet to get the dreaded "this registry is temporarily unavailable" message.

The return policy is more strict (returns must be within 30 days of the wedding, and you get gift cards), and while the registry completion incentive is large (20% discount), it is more challenging to use (must be used in the store, 2-4 months after the wedding). These are drawbacks (especially since there isn't a Dillard's in Michigan, where we live), but thus far, we are happy with the registry experience.

Anyone else register at Dillard's? What was your experience?