I have always loved a good "work memoir." As much as I don't enjoy working jobs, I do enjoy learning about them, particularly ones I know I am never going to do. This was the case with Claire Lewis's new memoir Exposed: Confessions of a Wedding Photographer.
I know I'm never going to be a wedding photographer not only because I'm not a very good photographer, but also because I hate all things associated with weddings. I disliked every moment of planning mine (well, picking out the food was okay), even though we kept it as simple as possible, and to this day I rather wish we'd eloped. Live and learn. Lewis's memoir was pretty much what I expected it to be: the unreasonable demands of mothers-in-law; working with bridezillas; wedding day disasters (evidently it never, ever works for your wedding attendees to release butterflies that they sell in individual boxes, just for that purpose--where are the PETA people when that crap is going on?); and rare anecdotes of joyful couples who are just happy to be getting married and take everything in stride.
I also enjoyed the interactions between Lewis and her assistant, Sarah. During one of their meetings, Claire was complaining about one particularly picky bride who was emailing constantly with messages like "We are having a MAJOR PROBLEM.* We want to use an ivory tablecloth on our cake table...People are telling me the ivory doesn't photograph well?!! We're pretty upset about it because it took us a super long time to make our linen decisions and it wasn't easy..." To which her assistant advised her on the following course of action: "Just tell her that ivory won't work and will look terrible. Then she'll have to start the whole linen planning over again. She'll be in heaven. It'll give her and her fiance something to worry about. Happiest time of their lives. They'll never have so much in common again." (pp. 131-146.) Ha!
In between her work experiences, Lewis also relates the story of her own romance, marriage, and childbirth, although those chapters felt a little rushed and slight to me. No matter: this was still a light, fun read. And now I can officially add "wedding photographer" to the long list of jobs I never want to hold.
*I also got a chuckle out of this book because it never ceases to amazes me what people categorize as "problems."
My best friend is a photographer (weddings and portraits) and has told me some great (horror) stories. I'm with you. I tried to keep my wedding simple & easy and still stressed out so badly my friend had to photoshop a huge zit out of every wedding picture. My advice: elope and spend the money on a honeymoon instead.
Posted by: Marmota | 01 June 2010 at 10:17 PM
Marmota,
If your friend works in the biz I'll just bet s/he has some great stories! That's why I love books like this--you suspect this sort of crap is going on, but there's something hilarious about reading it. Love the "inside story."
Oh, weddings. The problem with weddings is that it's not just your party--spouses are involved, parents, parents-in-law, etc., and everyone takes it too seriously. Oh well. Mine still ended up fine and I didn't even look at the photos closely enough to see if I had any zits, which I'm sure I did! But all in all I like your "spend it on the honeymoon" advice.
Posted by: Citizen Reader | 02 June 2010 at 09:27 AM
Nora Roberts (romance author extraordinaire) has a series out now on four women who plan weddings -- one is overall general, one does the baking, one does the flowers and the 4th is the photographer. It, too, gives a look at (very!) high-end weddings. I agree with you; it's stressful and planning it is not particularly fun at all. Save the money and buy a house. But I do agree with you it's fun to get a look at how other people live through their memoirs. "Free Sex, Expensive Therapy" takes a look not at a job (though I'm going to look for this photographer one) but at a time, when sex was seemingly free but came at a high cost in self respect. It's really a memoir about her transformation but it's honest, very readable and written with a nice light touch, despite the serious topic. See http://judithsage.com
Posted by: Liz | 14 July 2010 at 10:23 AM
Liz,
I just picked up one of those Nora Roberts wedding books (for a different project), so I was tickled to see your suggestion here. I've never read a Roberts so I'm very interested to try one.
And thanks for the tip about the memoir; it's been a while since I read one!
Posted by: Citizen Reader | 14 July 2010 at 06:43 PM