Five generations have revisited special moments in their lives by looking through photographs, especially of their wedding day. But the brides and grooms of early to mid-20th century had only memories of their weddings because their photographers simply were missing.

Early cameras were large and bulky and portable lighting equipment non-existent, tethering photographers and bridal portraits were taken in studios. All these changed during World War II when the 35mm camera, roll film and on-camera flash hit the scene, transforming first war photography, then photojournalism and eventually wedding photography. After the war, military-trained photographers and amateurs trolled wedding parties snapping candid photos they would sell to delighted bridal couples. That made wedding photographers come out of their studios and onto the wedding day scene. Even then wedding photos were posed and moments like cake slicing carefully staged.

While going through the pages of glossy magazines in 1940s and '50s, young couples and photographers began to see something new: candid, intimate photographs of celebrity and royal weddings taken by photojournalists. Although they contained formal poses, many photos captured the moment of the wedding day for better or worse, like the 1943 Life magazine published   the photograph of 54-year-old, serious-faced Charlie Chaplin fumbling with the wedding ring as he tried to place it on the finger of his 18-year-old fourth wife, Oona O'Neill – a long-lasting endearing moment.

In 1956 Americans were presented with photographs of a happy-yet-tentative Marilyn Monroe laughing while feeding cake to her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, on their wedding day. Also in the same year magazines all over the world gave the royal photos of the grand wedding of actress Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier of Monaco, devoting full-page spreads to candid moments, such as a pensive Princess Grace gazing over a balcony before the ceremony and the couple exchanging rings.

Then it happened one day, photojournalists were invited to a wedding and they did what they could do best to get the wedding moments through the most candid, often humorous way. Artful images of unfettered moments have always a universal appeal and these early photographs helped set a new genre of wedding photography. After some decades this documentary approach has evolved to the present form, a popular option in wedding photography that captures the story behind the wedding ceremony. Today it is available to everyone, not only to celebrities and photographers need not have to be journalists to shoot the memorable moments.

For those wedding photographers who are experienced photojournalists, their journalism background often informs choices they make when shooting weddings. Years of experience help them know when a moment is coming and they never go for clichés, only the moments in between. Capturing ordinary moments on one of the most transforming days in people's lives is what wedding photography is about for. While traditional wedding photography tends to impose order and structure to the day, a photojournalistic style takes advantage of unscripted moments in order to better tell the story. A photographer, having a photojournalism background, creates images that transcend the specific to become universal, so that anyone looking at the powerful wedding images will be moved.