Sponsored Post: Williams Sonoma $150 Giveaway!

I am excited about today's post and giveaway on so many levels. Williams-Sonoma is genuinely one of those stores that makes me happy (and stores don't generally make me happy). There's something about their open layout, amazing kitchenware, and delicious treats that excites and inspires me about cooking and our homelife in general. In fact, one of our first engagement presents was a cookbook from Williams-Sonoma that I can't rave about enough. More than a cookbook, it's a reference guide full of great information on how to stock your kitchen, various cooking techniques, party planning tips, and amazing recipes. The gorgeous photos, lists all necessary implements for each recipe, and easy/medium/hard guides helped us move beyond stir-fry to rack of lamb without fear. We've turned to it on many a Sunday afternoon to plan a special evening in or recipe for entertaining.  Both the Williams-Sonoma book and store genuinely help cooking feel both accessible and special to me.

Cooking has become a central part of our shared life. We savor the time we spend together researching new recipes, shopping at farmer's markets, and preparing dinners over music. We've made do with our eclectic mix of scratched teflon pans and pots missing lids, but we're excited about the chance to have high-quality, long-lasting kitchenware on our registry. We bought everyday plates from a big box store, but they're already chipped after a year and I'm looking forward to having lifelong, durable servingware. We're not looking at our registry as a chance to simply acquire more stuff, but as the chance to build a home. My mother just replaced the Cuisinart my parents received from their wedding registry. She still has the same dutch oven from her wedding gift list. She still uses registry-purchased serving platters for Christmas meals and fancy occasions.  These pieces are part of my home and childhood memories. And we want the same for our home and future memories. We want items we'll cherish and use over and over. We want items from a company we can trust for durability and quality.

I would love love love a set of Calphalon non-stick, anodized aluminum cookware. Easy-to-clean, non-teflon, scratch-resistant, consistent heating, dishwasher-save, high-quality cookware that I can use for years and years.

I would love a cast-iron dutch oven for oven-safe and cooktop-safe slow-roasting of meats, soups, and sauces. And yes, I love the vibrant red color of this five quart dutch oven from Le Creuset.

 

We don't usually cook that much meat, but for Thanksgiving this will be an absolute necessity. And Jason may be inspired now to learn how to prepare prime rib.

 Cooking is about 1000 times easier and more fun with a quality set of knives. And a knife sharpener. I would love more than one good knife, which is what we currently have and creates difficulties when we're both doing prep work. I would love a full set of knives to handle all our cooking needs. 

These glass mixing bowls stack-and-store, can replace our scratched plastic bowls, and can also double as serveware.

We love entertaining and I would love to have these three cherry wood trays for hors d'oeuvres, transporting wine glasses to the patio, and general food presentation at parties. 

We never cared much about the gift part of wedding planning, since we're mostly excited about getting to celebrate our wedding with our community. But now, as the marriage becomes more real, I find myself getting more excited about crafting a meaningful registry too. It's felt easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer number of things we could request but, when I think back to my parents kitchen, I can start to imagine ours. And I can start to imagine our life. And I feel like our kitchen and Sunday dinners will be a foundation for our new family in the way that it was in my childhood family.

And that's why I'm truly excited about today's post, because Williams-Sonoma is offering one lucky reader a $150 to help with building your new family's home. That's $150 you can use that towards a food processor, dutch oven, pyrex dishes, cookbooks or whatever else you think is most important for you and your home.

To enter, all you need to do is:

1. Visit Williams-Sonoma here and create a registry. If you already have a registry, don't worry, you can still enter by adding another item to your existing Williams-Sonoma registry.
2. Leave a comment saying that you registered and sharing your item/why you're excited about this item for your future home.
3. You can get an extra entry if you include your registry link in the comment.

The contest closes at 6pm PST on Wednesday, September 8, so head on over here to start exploring and dreaming about your future home possibilities...