We are getting very excited that our wedding is coming up so soon! We wanted to make sure our guests are updated about the changes we will be making to keep our guests safe at our upcoming wedding. Our ceremony will take place outside, and the seating will be spaced out to accommodate for adequate social distancing. For the reception, the venue holds 500 guests. We will plan to have well under this number to allow for adequate social distancing as well. We will continue to monitor the current situation and adjust our final guest count as we see appropriate. We will have wrist bands for our guests to indicate whether they feel comfortable being approached by others with or without a mask on. Additionally, if you would feel more comfortable being seated outside for the reception, please reach out to us to let us know, and we will do our best to accommodate that. We also understand that many people are not yet comfortable with traveling, and we completely understand if you are unable to make it, but you will be missed!

Unfortunately, James and I had to make the difficult decision to postpone our wedding due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our new wedding date will be April 3, 2021, at the same time and location. We are sad to restart the #CountdowntoCook, but we are so excited to celebrate with everyone when our big day is finally here!

James and I first met when we were going to take the MCAT in Dallas, TX right after finishing our junior years at the University of Texas. We were later re-introduced the following spring at our favorite college bar, Cain & Abel's. We chatted there and then again the next week while out on 6th Street on a Thursday night. We had a ton in common, both being from Dallas and about to start medical school, so we talked for awhile. At that time, James was going to UT Houston for medical school, and I hadn't been accepted yet. James mentioned wanting to go elsewhere for medical school, but that if his good friend Brady or I got into UT Houston, he would love to go there. Oddly enough, both Brady and I were accepted to UT Houston a few weeks later. When medical school began later that summer, the three of us hung out together quite often because we knew each other from college. James and I became great friends who liked to joke around and have a ton of fun together. A couple months into our first year. my friend Chaiss pointed out that James definitely had a crush on me. This was something I was completely oblivious of, but once she pointed it out, I couldn't ignore it. His beautiful blue eyes and sense of humor were hard to resist. Our joking around soon turned into flirting, and sparks flew very quickly. We spent a ton of time alone together over the next few months, either watching the Office or studying. Eventually, my best friend Colleen urged me to go for him, so I told him that I was serious about him. He couldn't hide his feelings either, and we started dating a month later, in February 2016.

James and I had been discussing our engagement for quite awhile at this point. We had gone ring shopping in November, and I had been completely convinced he would propose while we were skiing with his family in Crested Butte over Christmas. When that didn't happen, I hinted to him that he would be wise to propose to me before he left for an away rotation in Vienna, Austria at the start of February. I wanted our wedding date booked before Match Day, the day we opened an envelope that told us where we would be completing our residencies for the next few years. Being the planner that I am, I wanted to make sure we could ask our residency programs for that time off during our intern year. Each weekend in January passed by without a proposal, and the last one finally approached. I had hope the proposal would happen that weekend, but my friends were doing an amazing job convincing me otherwise. That Saturday, we were supposed to be heading to happy hour near downtown Houston, but instead we got out at Buffalo Bayou Park, so I knew what was coming. We walked to a bridge overlooking the Houston skyline, and James told me that I was the reason he had grown to love Houston so much, and that no matter where we ended up for residency, he would love it because he got to be there with me. Then he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife! Next, he said we had a dinner reservation at Theodore Rex, one of our favorite restaurants in Houston. When we arrived, I didn't see anyone in the restaurant I knew, but when the hostess walked us next door to "wait for our table", she opened the door and both of our families were waiting there to surprise us. He knew I would have wanted our families there, and he pulled it off perfectly. After an amazing dinner, we went to Holman Draft Hall, where around 50 of our friends were waiting for us for yet another surprise. Friends had come from all over to celebrate us, and it was one of the best nights of our lives. We had such a blast!