Happy Holidays!

With the new year just around the corner, we hope you and yours have been enjoying a festive holiday season and gearing up for an exciting 2011. As we look back at this current year, we feel grateful for how 2010 has been full of blessings and memorable moments. One of the most significant, of course, was our marriage, which brought this blog into being and is now six months old today. How about that?

We'd like to thank everyone for all the holiday cards that we've been receiving. It's great to hear from you and find out how you're doing. We haven't been so organized as to send out our own cards, but in a nod to the tradition, we did snap a few family photos to share with you. We all posed around the Christmas tree -- which is our very first!

George wishes there were more ornaments to make mischief with.

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Max smells holiday spirit. Is it edible?

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Peace and love from Alec and Natasha!

More Wedding Photos

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We feel grateful to have you in our lives, among other blessings.

There are a few wedding photo sets on this blog in previous posts, but here are links to even more from Vivien, our good friend and photographer extraordinaire.



Bride and Groom
(35 photos)











Reception
(117 photos)
Pictured here: Bob, Trav, Austin, & Ruby










More reception
(42 photos)
Pictured here: Vivien with Sheila, who helped take many of the shots in this set. Thanks you two!

October

The month's not over yet, but let's celebrate our four-month anniversary with a look back at October...

Weekend trip to Empire Mine State Park near Nevada City

Liza, Liam, and Willie stop by to drop off a planter box for the garden

First harvest of chrysanthemum greens










Hanging out in the front yard with our neighbor Diego and his chickens, Ginger and Chocolate















Retrofitting the house -- Natasha drills holes in the foundation

Pumpkin-carving housewarming!

September

Okay, so we missed doing a three-month anniversary post by a few days, but we still managed to squeeze one in before October.

In case you're wondering, we've been putting your gift cards to good use. They've helped us spruce up the house, but guess what -- Home Depot has a ton of gardening supplies, too. With your help, we've turned a corner of our large, weed-infested yard into a garden:

We're growing a number of flowers, including zinnias:



sunflowers:



and cosmos:

All from seed! We've also got a few beans, greens, and tomatoes going as well. Thank you for underwriting this exciting project. We'll keep you posted on how things progress...

Wedding Photos

In honor of our two-month anniversary (maybe this will be a monthly blog?), here are some pictures taken of our wedding by our dear friend Vivien, who we can't thank enough. She did our engagement photos earlier this summer and then followed that up with a stellar effort on the big day. Check out the goods at her Flickr page:

Wedding Ceremony

Wedding Party & Family

We love how these turned out; they really captured the beauty, wonder, and excitement of the event. Thanks again, Viv!

Happy Anniversary

Yes, it's been a month already. How time flies!
Rather than let this blog fade into cyberspace, we're thinking maybe we'll try and keep it rolling, just a little bit. There are adventures yet to take, so we might as well attempt to chronicle them... stay tuned!

Here we go...

Let the excitement begin!

Directions to the Wedding

We're getting close, folks. Probably close enough that you've already got directions to the wedding venue, but just in case...
Pictured at left is where it's going down: the Garden Center at Lake Merritt, 666 Bellevue Avenue. Here's how to get there.

From the Washington Inn or Jack London Square in downtown Oakland:

Head north on Broadway. Take a right on Grand Avenue (you’ll see Ozumu restaurant on the far left corner). Go down Grand Avenue three blocks until you see the lake. Cross Harrison and make the next (soft) right onto Bellevue Avenue (this is an entrance to a park with a little booth there). Pass Children's Fairyland on your right. The garden center will be on your left.

From San Francisco, the north, or the Peninsula:
Take I-580 E. Take the Harrison Street exit, and turn right onto Harrison Street. Go down the hill on Harrison Street, and turn left on Grand Avenue (this is the third stoplight you will see. You can see the lake from this intersection). Turn left on Grand Avenue. Go through a stoplight, and the first right will be Bellevue Avenue (this is an entrance to a park with a little booth there). Pass Children's Fairyland on your right. The garden center will be on your left.

From the south or east:

Take I-580 W. Take the Grand Avenue exit. Turn right on Grand Avenue and drive about 0.7 mile. You'll see the lake to your left. Turn left on Park View Terrace (this is an entrance to a park with a little booth there). If you get to Harrison Street, you've gone too far. Park View Terrace turns into Bellevue Avenue. Pass Children's Fairyland on your right. The garden center will be on your left.

From BART:
Get out at the 19^th Street Oakland stop. Head north on Broadway. Turn right on 20th Street and walk towards the lake. Turn left on Harrison Street. Turn right on Grand Avenue. Pass Children's Fairyland on your right, and make a soft right on Bellevue Avenue. Continue on Bellevue Avenue and you will see the garden center on your left.

Also: We have reserved a few parking spots along Bellevue (tell the attendant in the booth you're there for the MacDonald-Saleski wedding) but they might fill up. There's street parking on Grand Avenue if the lot fills up.

See you soon!

Engagement Photos

This blog needed some photos, didn't it?
Our very talented, very awesome friend Vivien has been generous enough to do an engagement photo session with us earlier this month. Our backdrop was among the gardens at the Lake Merritt Garden Center, behind the building where we'll have the ceremony and reception. We recommend you show up early and have a stroll among the flowers -- it's a peaceful and quite beautiful place.
For more of Vivien's photos, click this link.

Things to Do While You're Here

Besides the wedding, of course!

If you're coming in from out of town and are looking for activities, here are a few suggestions to get you started.

First of all -- and we'll do another post on this soon with additional details -- we're going to have an informal barbecue late Friday afternoon, which everyone is welcome to attend. We're looking to start around 4 p.m. nearby the Garden Center at Lake Merritt (the wedding venue) and later move to the downtown Oakland area for a nightcap. More info to come.

You can get a basic overview of what Oakland has to offer at the Oakland Convention and Visitors Bureau.

If you have children, you might take them to Children's Fairyland, conveniently located right next to the Garden Center. Legend has it that this theme park was the inspiration for Disneyland.

For the nature lovers, we've got plenty of parks and hiking trails in the East Bay.

Sports fans, take note: the A's will be around next week, against the Reds (Monday-Wednesday) and the Pirates (Friday-Sunday), and tickets are easy to score day-of. Across the Bay, the Giants host the Red Sox over the weekend as well.

For those looking for a gourmet meal, a few high-profile options are:
Lake Chalet (Seafood; opposite side of Lake Merritt)
Flora (California cuisine & fancy cocktails; downtown)
Yoshi's Oakland (Japanese restaurant, doubles as a jazz club; Jack London Square)

Our recommendations for more moderately-priced fare:
Golden Lotus (Vegetarian Pan-Asian; downtown)
Spice Monkey ("eclectic California fusion"; downtown)
Everett & Jones (barbecue; Jack London Square)
Le Cheval (Vietnamese; downtown)
Silver Dragon (Chinese; Oakland Chinatown)

A few bar suggestions:
The Trappist (for the beer snobs; downtown Oakland)
Pacific Coast Brewery (serves lunch and dinner, with outdoor seating; downtown Oakland)
Jupiter (brew pub with good food; downtown Berkeley)

You probably didn't make a cross-country trip just to watch a movie, but the Grand Lake Theater is a cool place to catch a flick if the mood strikes you.

And finally, if you're still looking to get your dance on after the wedding, The New Parish hosts a dance party that very night that will be in full swing when our reception winds down, and should probably last until 1:30 or 2 a.m. It's not really a tourist spot, but it's a big venue and a great time.

Give us a call if you would like further suggestions!

The Registry Question

Hi all,
Long time, no blog. The days have a way of slipping by, huh?
We've had quite a few inquiries about where we are registered. Initially, we had decided not to go the registry route -- your presence at our ceremony is the best gift we could ask for. With so many people recommending that we do a registry, however, we've started to wonder if we shouldn't set one up.
Since it's getting pretty close to the big day, we thought we'd propose this simple idea: if you would really like to give a gift, perhaps a small gift certificate is the way to go. With the new house, we've been spending a lot of time at Home Depot lately, and expect to be making a few trips to Bed, Bath & Beyond, so those two outlets are safe bets. And if you already bought a gift, or had your eye on something else entirely, that's totally cool too.
You also can't go wrong showing up with only a smile and a couple hugs. Please know that what will make us most happy is to see you on June 26!

Invites in the Mail

Yes, we're a little behind schedule--our apologies! But the invitations are in the mail.

Part of our excuse for lagging has been that we've been a little tied up trying to buy a house. And now we've done it! As you'll notice when your invites do arrive, we have a new address:

939 57th Street
Oakland, CA 94608

More on that later, but for now, a couple pieces of info. First, we've asked for a May 15 RSVP, but please don't consider that a pressing deadline by any means. If June rolls around and we haven't heard from you, we might give you a call, but you certainly shouldn't feel obliged to rush on letting us know your plans.

Second, a word on the invitations themselves. We designed them to showcase Lake Merritt, which we've lived down the street from since moving here in 2006. A gathering spot for many Oaklanders, this small lake has many features that we think make it special, including a ring of lights around the water's edge and a variety of bird life, both of which we've tried to represent on the invitations. Our favorite Lake Merritt bird: the coot.

After carving out the invitation design on a linoleum block, we turned to our friend Liza, who showed us how to use her old school printing press to run off prints. It's a sort of amazing process, and lots of fun. We can't thank Liza enough for all her help and expertise, and look forward to a day when she's parlayed her amazing artistic talents into a business venture. You can check out some of her projects--not just printmaking and arts & crafts, but home rehab, cooking, and other excitement--at her blog.

More to come soon!

Nearby Hotels

If you're coming in from out of town and looking for a place to stay, there are plenty of options. We haven't reserved a block of rooms with any one hotel, in part because we figure many guests will have different lodging needs. There are a few spots we think might be worth recommending, though.

In Downtown Oakland, we know folks who have had good experiences at these two:
The Washington Inn near City Center BART station
Oakland Waterfront Hotel in Jack London Square
There's also the City Center Marriott and Courtyard Marriott (across the street from each other near the City Center BART station). Downtown Oakland tends to be a little more lively at night, and these hotels are the closest to the wedding venue, although they aren't necessarily walking distance.

For those who'd prefer a little more peace and quiet, there are a number of hotels near the Oakland airport, including:
Hilton
Holiday Inn

Also, Berkeley is a great alternative, especially for you Cal alums looking to stroll down memory lane. These two hotels are pretty convenient:
Hotel Shattuck Plaza near Downtown Berkeley BART station
Hotel Durant south of UC Berkeley campus

And there's always San Francisco, although hotels over there tend to be a little pricier, and you will of course have to cross the Bay for the wedding. We're not as familiar with those hotels, but the area around Market Street has a lot of offerings, and is centrally located.

If you have any specific questions with respect to lodging, please don't hesitate to contact us--we're here to help!

SAVE THE DATE

Ceremony and reception on Saturday, June 26, 2010 in Oakland, California.
Children welcome.
Informal get-togethers the day before and after.
Looking forward to seeing you!