Is there any better feeling than seeing a best friend you haven’t seen for years?

Actually, yes.

Getting to relive that feeling over and over again, every time you look at the photograph.

This is why I believe photographs like this are some of the most important images I can take at a wedding.

There was no posing. No one was told where to stand, where to put their hands or to look at the camera and smile. In fact, they had absolutely no idea I was taking it.

It was simply a moment. A huge hug. Eyes closed. Emotion everywhere. The kind of moment that happens in a few seconds and then disappears into the whirlwind of the wedding day.

And that is why I love documentary wedding photography.

Of course, the photographs of the dress, the rings and the newly married couple are important. But so are the people who came to see you, the hugs you didn’t want to end, the laughter, the tears and all those tiny moments happening around you while you were busy getting married.

Years from now, these photographs won’t just show what the day looked like.

It will remind them exactly how that hug felt.

And she didn’t even know I was there.