If you're planning a wedding, you may want to start by reading the real estate section of your favorite newspaper. The key to real estate, of course, is location, location, location. Well, that and avoiding sub-prime mortgages, but that’s another blog altogether. One of the first things you will have to do when you get engaged (after a quick course in pronouns: “We” is in, “I” is out, as in “We think that save-the-date cards are a great idea”) is figure out where your wedding will be held. And as in real estate, location is king.

(Side note: I am probably more involved in my wedding than 85 percent of grooms, but I just don’t get why we are spending money to create a custom card telling people to hold the date. E-mail—and I’m not suggesting we send something with flashing text and dancing penguins—would be simpler, cheaper, and, since nothing really exists until it is in your Outlook calendar, much more convenient. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.)

As you may remember, if it were up to just the two of us, we would be getting married on a tropical beach. Given that we have about 198 other people to take into consideration, that is not happening. We both have lived in DC a long time, and most of our guests are from here or went to school here, so we decided to have the wedding in Washington. (Those of you paying attention will note the use of the correct pronoun, “we.”)

We decided pretty quickly that most of the hotels in DC didn’t work for us. I have worked in the hotel business for about 12 years, so I am pickier than most, and most DC hotels have a traditional style that neither of us likes. Next we looked at historic and private houses and public spaces such as museums. Washington has a great selection, but beware—we went to one house that smelled like history had had too much Olde English malt liquor and had thrown up in the corner.

In the end we did end up going with a hotel—one of the few in DC that has a unique style and all the amenities we are looking for, including an outdoor garden to hold the ceremony. But as with a real-estate purchase, picking the property is just the first step. . . .

If our groomzilla can find a venue he likes in Washington, anyone can. Share your ideas for ceremony or reception sites in the comments.

To follow Josh's story from the beginning, click here.

To read the latest Bridal Party blog posts, click here.