Set the Table A practical primer to registering for tableware by Karin B. Miller Just as you want to fill your closet with quality clothing, when you register, you'll want to top the table with mealtime mainstays; pieces you'll use today, tomorrow and on your golden anniversary. We're talking a dinnerware pattern versatile enough for both Coq au Vin and Coke and pizza, simple serving pieces like giant bowls that serve both garlic mashed potatoes and tater-tot hot dish, and basic glassware that's right from breakfast to buffet to bedtime. What follows is a primer for tabletop basics you really need. Starting from Scratch To begin, you'll need to select your dinnerware pattern. And what could be more basic than white? "All food looks wonderful on white dishes," says Bette Kahn, spokesperson for Crate and Barrel. "And no matter what you receive as serving pieces, everything goes." For obvious reasons, Heidi Carisch, owner of Blanc de Blanc in Wayzata, is another fan of white. Her store's two most popular patterns? Quadrille by Nikko and, fittingly named, Blanc de Blanc, both white designs that complement everything. With white dinnerware, simply change the color of your tablecloth or table runner and you've got a new look-say, yellow for spring, green checkered in the summer, crimson for the holidays. Add whimsical salad plates or colored glassware, and your table takes on another personality. Use your dinner plates as chargers under your Aunt Ruthie's dessert dishes, and you achieve yet another look. "White sets a wonderful table," says Crate & Barrel's Kahn. That said, if white's not your style, you might choose another solid color to serve as your neutral. No problem-myriad solid-colored dinner patterns exist. At the China and Crystal Center, for example, you'll find five patterns that come in a minimum of four solid colors each-from wheat to sage to turquoise. Any could serve as tabletop building blocks. For much more on bridal beauty, see the current newsstand issue of Minnesota Bride.