Unconventional Career Idea đĄ Become a Mobile Wedding Writer
Earn $130,000 - $260,000 writing about weddings đ
I hate weddings.
I hate the poses, hate the dresses, hate the cliche-ness of it all. AND YET, this job might be the one that would convince me to actually go to them. đ
Youâve got your typical suspects at a wedding, right? Youâve got the photographer, the videographer, the planner, the DJ. Maybe the DJ is making out with the planner. Maybe the photographer is screwing the groom. See what I mean? Weddings are rose-colored cesspools of false hopes and dreams.
SO WHAT IâM SAYING IS MAYBE I SHOULDNâT DO THIS JOB.
But, someone should *totally* do this job.
Okay, so hear me out: lately, Iâve seen a new trend emerging called âlive wedding painting.â
Exhibit A:
(Search for âlive wedding painterâ on Instagram and youâll find a little enclave of artists hopping on this career trend!)
And so recently, when I went to get my hair done, a young girl in the next chair was talking about her wedding, and then that forced me to picture her wedding, and then that forced me to think about what in the living fark I would do if I had to get married, and thatâs when the thought occurred to me:
Iâd want a book.
Photographs are great, videos are great, but theyâre also incredibly one-note. You see the outfits, you see the cake, you see seventeen people doing the macarena.
Even with video, you might capture the best manâs speechâwhich will inevitably include a drunken story nobody wanted to hearâbut it all still feels so very generic, flat, expected, hackneyed.
Enter: the live wedding writer.
Hereâs what Iâm picturing:
Writer shows up live at wedding
Writer documents what they see, experience, hear, smell, taste, feel, think, witness.
Writer collects supplemental material on site at event: interviewing guests, jotting down songs played, taking notes about real conversations happening around them, documenting tiny, fascinating details: like the fact that the mother-in-law was wearing MAC lipstick in Retro Red, or that the best friend ran around asking everyone if they wanted a tequila, or that the drunk uncle spilled a vase of roses. You know, the little details that actually make things interesting.
Writer goes home and drafts a âmicro novelââa novel that takes place over the course of one day. (Iâm calling it a ânovelâ because âwedding bookâ sounds too much like a wedding photography book or scrapbook.)
Writer delivers leather-bound micro novel to couple as a totally unique keepsake; one that their children and grandchildren and great-great grandchildren can read and re-read forevermore. Itâs one thing to see a picture of your great-grandma, but another thing to read a book about who she was and the people she knew and the world she lived in, suspended in a moment of time.
WHY ARENâT MORE PEOPLE DOING THIS?!
The wedding industry is incredibly lucrative, given that in some markets, people plan on spending tens of thousands of dollarsâor more. Itâs the one time when people can justify a big expense. (âI deserve it.â) Normally, if youâd try to do thisâsay, write micro novels of peopleâs everyday family livesâit would be considered a ânice to have,â not a âneed to have.â (And thatâs way harder to sell.) But, people go crazy about their weddings, and that turns things that are normally ânice to haveâ into âMUST HAVE, CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT, DID I EVEN REALLY MARRY IF I DONâT HAVE A BOOK ABOUT IT?!?!â
If youâve always wanted to be a writer, this is a great way to marry your love of writing with a legitimate commercial needâespecially if you love weddings! (I know you freaks are out there. đ¤Ł)