Your idea sounds great. Now, when you like it pure CSS, why not make one using pure css. It’s an oppertunity to learn what you can achive without relying on javascript. 
If I came visiting with a wedding in mind, certainly a row of thumbnails with interesting related stuff would make me stay longer and maybe more open for bussiness.
But an animated slider wouldn’t add anything, though the thumbnail row beneith the slide is a very good display I think. I would like the view images be large enough to have the expected information and I definitly wouldn’t like the image I look at to slide away.
Make a scriptless CSS version, keep it simple. It’s not that hard for a new developer when he has come to the right place asking for advice. 
My first thought suggestion is to have the row of thumbs, but without the slider. Rather do like you already do with the other images, show the large image of choice on interaction. Even better, let the image pop up to view in front of everyting on a mouse click (click a thumb to view). Thats easy. The hard pard is to not overdo it.