Lodging info!

Hello there! We finally sent the invitations out yesterday and people living in Sunnyvale have already started getting them, yay!! So excited about how great they turned out, but will wait a week or so before I blog about them so people can be surprised when they go to their mailboxes.

I promised two things would be on the blog in the invitations: registry and lodging info. I posted links to the registries a few weeks ago. If you click on the registry links on the right of this page, it will take you to the registry blog where you can click on the Target or Bed Bath and Beyond links to see the actual registries.

Anyhow, on to lodging. After looking over the guest list, it didn't seem that there would be enough guests who needed rooms to warrant reserving blocks of rooms anywhere. Most of the out of town guests are from this area and will be staying with their families or with us at the rental house. Just in case, I decided to look up and post a few hotels near the venue so our guests would have some options if they do find themselves needed or wanting them. I will also post if I hear that anyone has reserved a room so people can stay at the same places.

The Inn at Saratoga

20645 4^th Street

Saratoga, Ca 95070

Around $200 a night for a king, queen, or two queen room. Located less than a half mile from our rental house and only three and a half miles from Walden West. Click here for rates.

Saratoga Oaks Lodge

14626 Big Basin Way

Saratoga, Ca 95070

From $119 for a queen, to $129 for a king, and $149 for two queens, this quaint lodge is only 3.4 miles from Walden West and less than a quarter of a mile from our rental house! Click here for rates.

Cypress Hotel

Most rooms range from $116-$160, eight miles from Walden West and only five miles from our rental house. A little far, but this a really fun and swanky hotel. Matthew and I stayed here for our one year anniversary stay-cation! It’s also in the heart of Cupertino, which is where the groom grew up and I know  some of our out of town guests grew up here too. Click here for rates.

I tried to find a wide range of rooms, but please let me know if you had something else in mind! I will also post these below the registry links in the right side of the blog very soon. Can't wait to start getting RSVP cards in the mail very soon!! 

Cheers!

Kelly McBride (Soon to be Smallcombe!)

The story of Cake and Bear . . .

So we received another special delivery yesterday which made me realize that some people don't know about our whole Cake and Bear thing. When Matthew and I first started seeing each other, he came up with my very awesome nickname Kellycopter. This made me put my thinking cap on and I decided his nickname would be Mattie-Cake. Matthew started calling me other names that mostly ended in Bear, such as Sleepy Bear, Grumpy Bear, and Hungry Bear. Eventually those names turned into just Bear, and Mattie-Cake was shortened to just Cake. Put them together and we become Cake and Bear, kind of our own "Moose and Squirrel" Bullwinkle thing. Instead of writing our initials or names on things, I always wrote "Cake + Bear".

This is very important information for you all to know because you will be seeing Cake and Bear on a lot of things at the wedding, including these awesome flutes that we ordered!

I thought this was a good sneak peak to share since a lot of people may not see them the day of the wedding. We ordered them from Glass Girl Jen on Etsy. She has so many classic and unique options, made from stone wheel engraving which I guess isn't done too often anymore. I look forward to using these at the wedding and every anniversary after that! I'm also hoping to mail out the ultimate sneak peaks very soon!

Have a good night!

Kelly (Soon to be Smallcombe!)

Wedding Registries

Hello all! So I logged into our wedding registries the other day and realized that people have already started getting us stuff, which is weird because we haven't really told many people where we had registered yet. Then I realized that there is less than 80 days till the wedding and that we should probably share that information.

So I tried to set up a link that would take people straight to our registries from the side banners on here, but I still haven't really learned everything about blogger yet. If you look to the right banner above the blog archives, you will see a wedding registry area, with links for Target and Bed Bath and Beyond. If you click on those links you will get to the part of their websites where you need to enter our names. You can search for either Kelly McBride or Matthew Smallcombe. I'm sure you already know this, but just in case our wedding is November 3, 2012 and it will be in Saratoga.

I also tried to include direct links to our registries below, hopefully this works. I wish I'd had the time to get really creative with our registry and included some of my favorite places like CB2, Ikea, and Etsy, but I just didn't have the time! We also wanted to make our registries really easy and convenient for everyone to find. I hate waiting till the last minute to buy a wedding gift and then finding out that I needed to order stuff online and show up empty handed the day of!

Target

Bed Bath and Beyond

Cheers!
Kelly (Soon to be Smallcombe!)

Something old.

Hi everyone! I'm on my two week break from school and in super overdrive Wedding DIY heaven right now! I have lots of the informative blogs coming, but wanted to share some important pieces of the wedding I received today!

I made myself take a day off to spend some time with my family today. I went swimming with the parents, then Matthew came over and we had a nice dinner. Lots of great talks and memories were shared and it's just making me realize that a wedding is a celebration of growth in a family and I'm just so grateful for the one I have and for the one I'm becoming a part of. I'm glad my family feels the same way about Matthew as I do! I lucked out also, so excited to be a Smallcombe!

Anyhoo, I have been looking at cake serving sets and boy are some of them just ridiculous! Ribbons and fake gems glued all over the place, oh my! I plan on using these things for the rest of my life, I need something timeless. Something with a story! Then I remembered that my mom had mentioned giving me her mother's silver that she brought back from Vermont. I asked her to see it, and there are some amazing serving pieces! Absolutely perfect!

Here's an hipstamatic I took of them. They still need to be polished, but I hope they still look a little broken in.

Enjoy, I'm gonna go cuddle with the love of my life!

Goodnight!
Kells

A very exciting development!

I have been waiting to make this exciting announcement until all the details were hashed out, but now it is official! We have finally booked an amazing rental house for the wedding, check it out!!

I stumbled across it on this new website I found called airbnb. It's a website where people can either rent out their own homes or find homes to rent from other people. I had been searching for a great house near the wedding venue and couldn't find anything until I just happened to stumble upon this gem! We will use the house to get all the flowers ready and set up everything, host the rehearsal dinner and have a fun after party following the wedding! It's less than a five minute drive from Walden West and right next to downtown Saratoga! I am so walking to my favorite coffee shop, Blue Rock Shoot, during our stay!

There are stunning stained glass windows all over the house!

The master bedroom, where Matthew and I will spend our first night as husband and wife! ; )

Gorgeous backyard, I love the pop of color of the door!

And there's a (small) hot tub!! I will pretty much be in it as much as possible! I picture myself in it after the wedding in a white bathing suit with a veil and a glass of champagne! And with my new hubby of course!

The garden and some of the neighbors!

We really lucked out securing this amazing house! When we first looked at it a few months ago, the minimum stay was only 3 nights. However, when I went to book it last week, the owner had changed it to a week! After my panic attack subsided, the bride who refuses to take no for an answer took over and begged the owner to make a special exception for us! Luckily, his children had attended Walden West so we hit a soft spot with him and he agreed!!

There isn't much parking at the rental house, but thankfully it is only about 100 feet or so from downtown Saratoga. People can park in downtown and walk up to the house. For the after-party, Walden West said people can leave their cars overnight as well and there is plenty of room at the house for people to crash so we don't have to worry about guests drinking and driving after the wedding. 

We are beyond excited! This was the biggest piece of the puzzle that we needed to fall into place and I feel so much better now that it's booked! Our wedding is three months from tomorrow, ack!!! I'm not as freaked out as I was last month, but that's because we have gotten a lot done recently. We have ordered the favors (I still have to make the other part of them though), decor is coming along nicely, and everything has arrived for the invitations so I need to get on those stat! Hoping to send them out in the next two weeks!

In the next few weeks we will also be posting a lot of info about directions, recommendations for lodging, and our registry info (we're almost done!). I'm also collecting addresses and email info for the bachelorette and bridal shower events for my bridesmaids! We are going to pick out cakes and rings this weekend, so busy busy busy! (Did I mention grad school in there somewhere? No? Crap!) 

Cheers!

Kelly (Soon to be Smallcombe!)