The Wed­ding Beat is a com­ic nov­el, loose­ly based on the author’s real-life expe­ri­ence at The New York Times as a sin­gle, Jew­ish guy writ­ing the Vows wed­ding col­umn — always the wed­ding colum­nist, nev­er the groom.

Gavin Greene, the book’s pro­tag­o­nist, is a hope­less roman­tic. He’s also a pro­fes­sion­al one, report­ing on A‑list wed­dings from coast to coast. But there’s a thin line between being a hot­shot jour­nal­ist on assign­ment and a lone­ly guy work­ing at oth­er people’s par­ties every weekend.

“When am I going to read about your wed­ding?” asks his 82-year-old grandmother. 

Every­thing changes on New Year’s, when Gavin meets a trav­el writer with an adven­tur­ous spir­it and enchant­i­ng dim­ples. A moon­lit walk on a Man­hat­tan rooftop seems to seal the deal, but she slips away.

Gavin criss­cross­es New York to find her again, nav­i­gat­ing stressed-out brides, gos­sip blogs, a bud­get-cut­ting boss and his meshuge­nah but well-mean­ing par­ents. Along the way, he learns there’s some­thing worse than los­ing the nice Jew­ish girl of his dreams — hav­ing to write an arti­cle about her wedding.

Read Devan Sipher’s Vis­it­ing Scribe Posts

6 Things I Learned Writ­ing About Wed­dings For The New York Times