Life Stories #78: Jen Doll

Jen Doll's been to a lot of weddings. Some of them have been great experiences, others not so much. She tells both kinds of stories in her memoir Save the Date... and, along the way, she has a lot to say about friendships, relationships, and making our way into adulthood. (And, over the course of our conversation, some tips for what to do the next time YOU'RE invited to a wedding.)

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photo: Sarah Shatz

In this episode of Life Stories, the podcast where I interview memoir writers about their lives and the art of writing memoir, Jen Doll talks about her experiences as a serial wedding guest, as recounted in her memoir Save the Date. So we discussed how she came up with the idea of writing a book around (some of) the weddings she’s attended, what it’s like periodically reuniting with the same friends—and, in one case, former friend, how our parents’ relationships shape our personal concepts of marriage, and, as long as we’re telling wedding stories, which ones are the most embarrassing:

“I think the most really sad embarrassing thing that I’ve done has been allowing my stubbornness and immaturity create a situation where a relationship couldn’t be regained [with the former friend she’d run into at several weddings]… You know, I don’t actually think that I was wrong, just like I don’t think she was wrong, but I wish that I’d handled it differently. And so it’s embarrassing to think back about those weddings and think, ‘Yeah, you kinda drank too much and you end up puking and screaming at someone…’ That’s pretty awful.

On the other side of that—I think this is a more funny embarrassing moment, because all was forgiven and my friends now think of it as a funny story… It’s the moment where I threw my shoes down the road because I refused to leave a party and it sounds horrible, but it also now is the stuff of legend in my friend group, and the bride and groom think it’s really funny. So, I feel better about that, even though I wish I hadn’t done it.”

Listen to Life Stories #78: Jen Doll (MP3 file); or download this file by right-clicking (Mac users, option-click). Or subscribe to Life Stories in iTunes, where you can catch up with earlier episodes and be alerted whenever a new one is released. (And if you are an iTunes subscriber, please consider rating and reviewing the podcast!)