Nobody ever told me about the stress, nervousness and what a crazy emotional roller coaster it is to plan a wedding. Please, don't take those words out of context. I know that this is only one day, and that marriage is a lifetime. But it can be a little scary and a little stressful too.

When you are not totally paying for the wedding yourself (like us) things are, in a way, sort of out of your hands. I make the calls and the appointments, but my dad is writing most of the checks. It's really hard on us, not paying for the wedding. I'm not complaining, its just maybe a little demoralizing. When we got engaged over a year ago we told our parents and they were THRILLED, just like we knew they would. Without skipping a beat, my dad (in true daddy Cook fashion) scheduled a meeting to talk about money matters. Just like that. We didn't ask for a cent and he offered to pay.

We sat down at a local sand which shop. My dad with his yellow steno pad and a pen, and me with my pink three hole punched sheets that broke down every expense, to the penny, ranging in budgets from $5,000 - $20,000. We talked for a long time that afternoon, and decided that a $12,000 budget for the wedding was appropriate for a fall wedding (high season in Phoenix) in the downtown area. I was very happy that he decided to the amount he would be willing to spend for the wedding. Not only that, but my amazing mother paid the entire balance on our amazing photographer Matt Graves and my wedding dress.

In the last year the number has fluctuated a lot. Its been up, and its been down and right now we're back to projecting that the final number will be right at our original budget of $12K. This is not without giving certain things up though, like the photobooth, the seated dinner, the string quartet (kidding). We also went back and forth on how to save WAY more money to help out my dad, who was hit hard last fall with the enormous economic downtown. We brought up eloping to Vegas with only our immediate families, we also brought up heading down to Rocky Point, Mexico but it was ruled out due to the fact that many people didn't have passports, it was a no-win situation.

We've decided to get married here, in my beloved hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. Our venue is the Children's Museum of Phoenix, and as of right now we are the first and only wedding booked there, which is so amazing to both of us. During our search we knew that we wanted something modern, unique and very un-wedding, because we're not a normal couple. We aren't traditional at all. The Museum is split into three floors. The main atrium and two smaller floors with all sorts of playrooms; a mini grocery store, a car wash you go through on a tricycle. Needless to say, the Museum is amazing, and was an AMAZING choice for us and it fit perfectly into our budget, and our style.