Wedding shop-a-pa-looza!!!

My Mother-In-Law-to-be gave me her bonus check two days ago to put towards the wedding and I took it upon myself to spend most of it today!! But don't fret...I got LOT'S of stuff...and I still have about $90 dollars to spend!! My sister Kristi (along with her 3 2-year olds and her five year old) went to Decatur to shop at Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby has to be my most favorite store in the whole wide world!! I could spend hours upon hours in that store!! Unfortunately, with the triplets and Kadence, I didn't have as much time as I would have wanted. But I still got a TON of cool stuff!! So here is all that I got today!!







These three will be up at the head tables. The cake will also say "Live, Laugh, Love" as well. Soooo freaking cute! I love them!!



These will be Daniel's and I's toasting glasses. You probably can't see it...but the say Mr. and Mrs. on them.





These are the invitations I picked out. I couldn't pick a kind I liked...so I got two different styles!! I hearted them both!! They are soooo pretty!!



Here are some awesome candles that my even awesomer sister found! These will be up at the head tables as well.



And these are the plates that the candles will sit on. I fell in love with these candles!



These are the bridesmaids flowers. Obviously they aren't put together yet. But when we are done making them...we hope to have them look like...



THIS!! Isn't this pretty?? And they will stick out so nice and pretty with the red dresses they have on!!



And this is basically what the head table will look like. Well minus all the junk you see in the background!! LOL!!


A special thanks goes out to Donna, for without you, none of this would have been possible!! Also, a big thanks goes to Kristi for driving me to Decatur and dealing with her kids in a store that is most definately NOT built for kids!! I love you both so very much!!!

The Countdown!

Countdown Clocks, Wedding Countdowns at WishAFriend.com

I'M DOING IT!

Okay, so my last post was about me crying and boo-hooing about how I wanted to make myself look better and feel better and well...above most....look skinnier!! Well, you should be happy to know that this past Wednesday (4 days ago), I, Ashley Donaldson, joined a freaking gym!! I have gone 3 times now, and my oh my does my body hurt!! I've also been counting my calories. I've been consuming around 1300 calories a day. Which some days I have a hard time reaching that amount while other days, I want just a LITTLE bit more. I have been getting bored of my regular food choices, so I googled different fast food places to eat. So I hope this will help someone else out!!

McDonalds
Hamburger-250 Calories
Cheeseburger- 300 calories
Ranch Snack Wrap (grilled)- 270 Calories
Ranch Snack Wrap (crispy)- 340 calories
BBQ Snack Wrap (grilled) - 260 Calories
BBQ Snack Wrap (Crispy) - 330 calories

Chicken Nuggets
4 piece- 190 calories
6 piece - 280 calories
10 piece- 460 calories
BBQ sauce-50 calories

Salads
Premium Bacon Ranch W/Grilled chicken-260 calories
Side Salad - 20 calories

Fruit 'N Yogurt Parfait - 160 calories
Fruit 'N Yogurt Parfait with no granola - 130 calories
Apple Dippers- 35 calories
Kiddie Kone- 45 calories

Wendy's
Side Salad - 35 calories
Grilled Chicken Go Wrap - 260 calories

5 piece nugget - 138 calories

Grilled Chicken Salad - 200 calories

JR. Cheeseburger - 270 calories

Deluxe Garden Salad - 110 calories

There is two places for you!! I also looked up Subway and Taco Bell...but McDonald's and Wendy's is about the two most popular places!!

I got a McDonald's cheeseburger tonight and a side salad. I took off the bottom bun and used my own dressing at home. The packet they gave me had about 170 calories in it. I used 10!! I get the salad dressing in the spray bottle. My two favorite (well, the only two I have purchased) are the cesasar dressing and the vineggrette one!! MMMMmmmm!!! They are SOOO good!!

Okay, that is all for now. Wish me luck on my weight loss!!

Food is my enemy!

Sooo...Like any other normal bride, I want to lose lot's of weight for the wedding. I want to look really good in my dress...the only problem is...I'm a fat kid through and through. I LOVE sweets and I love carbs. And I like to walk, but right now it is just too cold to walk outside. So I just sit inside, eat, and get fatter! It is SOO stressful!! I want to lose some weight, but not so much that it will cost me an arm and a leg to get my dress altered. That's what sucks with having the dress already!! It's like I'm stuck at this weight!!! Actually, I hope that I can still fit into my dress!! But here is the problem...I don't have a home right now. Okay, so I do, but I am only there like two days out of the week if that. The rest of the time I live in town with Daniel and his parents. So I don't get the chance to eat healthy when I stay at his house.

Also, I read in a magazine that carbs curb depression. It's true!! Carbohydrates increase the amount of a certain chemical in the brain that makes you happier! The only problem I have with this is I get depressed, eat carbs, get fatter, get even MORE depressed! I am very down lately. I think I am still adjusting to the move back home. It is sooo tough going to see Daniel every day seeing him every once and a while. Plus, I got so used to sleeping with someone, that it's hard to sleep by myself.

Another tidbit that I read is that mashed tators help ward off stress!! When your body is stressed (which planning and PAYING for a wedding is super stressful), your body sends signals that it needs a constant supply of energy. Feeding your body high-fat and high-sugar foods tells your brain that you can relax, that you have enough energy to keep going.

I envy my sister so! She is one pound away from losing 30 pounds! *enter applause here* GO HER!!! I wish I was that strict and had time to eat healthy and work out!

So there you go, just an FK wishing she was skinnier!

My wedding shopping spree!

I went shopping last Thursday for some wedding stuff, and I got a whole bunch of things to use at the wedding. I was so excited shopping around for stuff, I had a blast!! I got a call from Wal-Mart to come in and interview on Friday, so it was kind of my treat to myself to go out and buy stuff, even though I really don't have money!! But you will love the stuff I got...Cuz I sure do!! So here is all the stuff I got!!!

I have yet to conquer how to put the words above or below the picture...so for now this will have to work. I got this cute little book where your quests can write a little message to you and then you can put all the little messges into a book and read them.

I got my shoes to wear under my dress, just pray they don't hurt my feet!

I got red plates and red napkins. (Thank goodness for Valentine's day!)

I got three different colored rose petals that I will use in my flower girl basket and just as decorations.

I got a candy mold of a double heart. I am going to make little chocolate hearts and put them into bags and use them as my wedding favors.

Some red cutlery.

My ring bearer pillow.

And lastly my flower girl basket. I love the basket and the pillow!!

Some cute ideas I found for wedding favors

Now for favor ideas..I haven’t yet decided what I want to give as gifts at the receptions, but I found a LOT of cute ideas!! So here they are!

For heart shaped tins, or other heart shaped sentiments you can fill with candy and attach a note that says “Thanks for sharing our special day with us”, or “Thank you from the bottom of our hearts”, or “a hearty thank you to all who shared this day with us!.”

Another cute idea is having little wedding bubbles on the table and attach a Hershey kiss to them and put a note on it that says “blowing kisses.”

If you are going to do candle favors, you could add a note saying “the light of your love will always burn bright”, or “our love shines like an eternal flame.”
I really liked this saying. I thought it was very cute!! Here it is:
It doesn’t matter where you go in life…
It matters who you have walking beside you.
Thank you for sharing our wedding day.

I thought it would be cute to have a cookie cutter shaped angel and either leave it as a cookie or turn it into a magnet or ornament and have it say:
Something old
Something new
Here is an Angel
To watch over you

I really thought this was a cute saying also: It was written in the stars, they were meant to be. (Then we can have our wedding date and names on it.)

This is REALLY cute and VERY inexpensive!! Have suckers at the tables and put “Suckers for each other”.

A cute quote “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

Some more cute sayings:
The bride was showered with gifts, that’s true,
But this little favor is just for you!

Wishing upon stars is what people do…
When I wished upon a star, I wished for you.

Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live

Live your life to its fullest
Laugh at all the things that don’t matter
Love with all that you have and more

I really like the last idea because that is what I want on my wedding cake. But I don't really know what to put that saying on!!

Cute Ideas I found online

I was browsing the internet looking for wedding ideas and I found a lot of interesting things. At one site, I found a place where you can get your ENTIRE vows engraved onto your wedding ring!! I thought this was cute, but the words would be sooo little that it would be hard to read it. But how cool is technology!! I want to get the rings engraved, but not with our entire vows though!!

Another idea that I found is a gift for the flower girl. I was having trouble with this idea. I didn’t know what I should get my niece Kadence for being the Flower Girl at my wedding. I wanted it to be cute, and something she would remember. I thought that I could get a lot of little things, and a shirt or bag or something that has the words “flower girl” on it. Well, I found the PERFECT idea!! I am going to get her a bridal Barbie!! What better gift could I find for her!! She is going to be sooo decided, and then when I play Barbie’s with her, I can reenact my wedding day!!!

I really want to use something other than just a book for my guests to write their names in. I sort of want to have a book with pictures of Daniel and I throughout it, and they can sign and leave a message throughout the book. (I kind of stole this idea from one of my sister’s blogs. Thanks Stephanie!!) Another idea is having a picture frame with our engagement picture in it and having people sign the actual picture frame. I don’t know, I like these ideas better than an old smelly book that will be put into a closet and forgotten about!!

Also, I came across a cute idea for the older couples at the reception. I will have a list of songs for the DJ to play, and the first song he plays will be for all couples, then the second song will be for married couples, then for married over 5 or more, then 10 years and on and on until the oldest couple is on the dance floor. I love old people and it just makes my heart smile to see people that have been happily married for over 50 years!!!