The wedding moments that matter – they may surprise you!
Abigail Gaines is now one half of Andy Gaines Photography, but previously from a career in education, shares how she’s come to view wedding photography in different light.
I’ll admit it. I didn’t used to understand what wedding photography was really about.
I did know it was more than just a photo of the dress or a cake. As my husband, Andy Gaines, edited images from a wedding I was in awe of some of the epic couple portrait shots he managed to capture – they way he’d captured the way the light falls, how they were positioned and the complete moment. At the same time there were other images of the wedding day he favourited, and I just didn’t get why.
My initial response to him was; “She will not like that, she’s pulling a face.”

He turned to me and smiled and I’ll admit, his response blew me away. He explained how this image wasn’t just for the bride, but was also for her mother. In the photograph the mother is doing the bride’s hair, just like she would have used to do when she was a little girl. “It will remind the mother of those special times they spent together that now seem so long ago. This is the last time that bride in the photo is truly her little girl”.
He told me that although the photographers role is, of course, to create the images the couple want before the day – the ones they think are essential, wedding photography is about so much more than just the day itself. Although of course the bride and groom are important, but so is capturing the relationships of those who love them and who they love. On the wedding day, all family and friends are gathered together celebrating -people you rarely have all in one place at the same time. Andy sees wedding photography as about seeing the world through the couple’s eyes, capturing people and the relationships. Each photograph connects you with a feeling, a memory, a moment. And of course, are also so important for those who couldn’t attend on the day…
Wedding photography should be much bigger than the day itself
This photograph shows the bride’s grandmother video calling her son from her hospice bed. She couldn’t be at the wedding, no matter how much she wanted to be.

Wedding photography should be much bigger than the day itself and photographers should strive to make images that are bigger than just the wedding day itself. Beyond anything else, capturing the raw emotions and feelings of the people at the event is the most important job that they do. To do this well, requires empathy, and the best way to do that is sometimes to be close to the emotions and events, even when it sometimes feels a bit uncomfortable.
Seeing beyond the obvious in a photograph
Some photographs that previously I may have scanned past in Andy’s galleries, I looked at anew and I started to see the depth in them.
The picture below shows Hannah and Ed who just moments after the ceremony snuck away, with a glass of champagne to celebrate together for a couple of moments. Andy knew at this point that he needed to keep his distance as this was their moment. Andy saw a photograph in the scene, with the couple mirroring the portrait situated to the side of them.

The non wedding moments of weddings
Photographically Andy loves the ‘non wedding elements’ just as much as the wedding elements of the day. For him the wedding is just a good excuse to get the couple and all the people important to them together and gives him the licence to capture people just being themselves. Sometimes an apparently mundane scene can be the most interesting. One of my favourite wedding photographs Andy has taken is ‘Horse Head Boy’:

Let’s be honest -this image has nothing to do with a wedding, it just happened to be taken at a wedding. Andy was drawn to the symmetry he saw when he spotted people sat on the wall eating wedding cake, he had a frame he liked and then it was then just about waiting for something to happen. Enter Horse Head Boy.
Making good images is not about being able to see photographs, it’s is about being able to see the potential in a scene that could develop into a good photograph. Knowing when to work that scene or knowing whether you are wasting your time.
Special moments are fleeting but a photograph takes you back to how you felt
This shot below shows a special moment between the groom and his father at the wedding party. A moment that could so easily be missed, but will mean so much.

So many couples tell us years later that they notice things in photographs from their wedding day they hadn’t spotted before, that their favourite shots from the day have changed over the years. And it’s all so subjective – we all see different things in each image. Your wedding photographs are for all those who are important to you in your life, and also of all those people important to you in your life. A connection in each image, photographs that make your ‘feel’.
It’s more than how things looked, it’s how you felt in that moment



Inspired by Andy’s unique take on photography, I now film weddings. Capturing all the moments that matter in a non obtrusive natural way – the videos I create are a story of not just the day, but of relationships. You can find out more about our storytelling wedding films here.