For a first Mac experience, I can't recommend a Macbook Air.

For what you listed:
1) There is no Access in Office Mac.
2) iMovie editing will be horribly slow and frustrating.
3) Using iPhoto would be ok, but still pretty slow.

I have the 1st gen Macbook Air from 2008 and after 9 months, couldn't stand it anymore. It was just too restrictive for a general purpose computer especially if we wanted to play with media. I then got a 13" Unibody Macbook, then a 13" Macbook Pro, and most recently a i7 iMac 27".

The 11" size is great for travel, except it's missing a SD card slot that would make it easier to load photos.

I buy all my computers from Amazon where you get a slight discount (about $50) plus they don't collect state sales tax in most areas which is I think 9.75% in Cook county. On black friday last year I bought my Macbook Pro for $150 off on Amazon and paid $4 more to get it with Saturday delivery using Amazon Prime.