We want to tell you something about why we photograph weddings the way we do. Why we care so deeply about the real moments, the trembling hands, the quiet looks, the tears that sneak up on people who swore they wouldn’t cry. Why we believe with everything in us that a wedding doesn’t have to be grand to be unforgettable.
It’s because of February 11th, 2020. The day we got married in a hotel lobby with $250 and the handful of people who loved us most.
Let me back up.

Thirty Years in the Making
We met when I was 13 years old. And I know this sounds like something out of a movie, but I knew from the very beginning. I started writing my first name with Josh’s last name on notebooks, on scraps of paper, on any surface that would hold ink, the way only a 13-year-old girl who has just met her person can. Thirty years of friendship. Thirty years of life happening in between. And through all of it, something in me always knew we’d find our way here.
I just didn’t know it would happen the way it did.

December 29th, 2019
Josh got sick. What looked a lot like COVID, before most of us even knew that word, was called the flu. And then that flu turned into necrotizing pneumonia. And then came the MRSA diagnosis.
He went into the hospital on December 29th and didn’t come home until January 19th. Three ICU rooms. Two surgeries on his lung to try to repair the abscesses. I watched the person I had loved for thirty years fight in a way I never want to witness again and never want to forget, because it showed me exactly who he is.
And on February 13th, he was scheduled for another surgery. His final one.

We Decided We Weren’t Waiting Anymore
Two days before that surgery, on February 11th, 2020, we got married.
Not because we had planned it. Not because we had a venue booked or a dress picked out or a guest list finalized. We got married because when life gets that real, that fragile, you stop waiting for the perfect moment and you make the moment.
We called our officiant Chelsea. We gathered the only people who needed to be there, my sister, and Josh’s employer at the time, a married couple named Michelle and Scott, and their daughter Kristen. Seven people total, including the two of us.
And we walked into the lobby of The Read House Hotel in downtown Chattanooga.

The Red Couches If you’ve ever been to The Read House, you know the lobby. It’s the kind of space that has history in its bones, high ceilings, warm light, and these beautiful alcoves with deep red couches that feel like they were made for quiet, important moments.
That’s where we stood. In one of those alcoves, with our small circle of people around us, and Chelsea’s words filling that gorgeous old space.
We paid $250.
We said our vows.
And just like that, after thirty years, we finally had the same last name.
Afterward, we had drinks at the Read House bar. We took pictures. We laughed. We held each other in the way you only can when you’ve just done something that matters more than you have words for.
We have never had a single regret. Not one. It was perfect – not despite being small and unplanned, but because of it. It was entirely, completely us.

February 13th
Two days later, Josh went into surgery.
And he came through.

He’s Still Fighting
Josh has never stopped being the strongest person I know. In June of 2025, he was diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer. He has walked through chemotherapy and radiation with the same quiet, stubborn courage he brought to that ICU room in 2020. And on May 28th, he goes in for surgery to remove the last of it.
We have been here before, standing at the edge of something terrifying, choosing each other anyway. That’s what we do. That’s who we are.
I’m not writing this for sympathy. I’m writing it because I think a lot of you reading this know exactly what this kind of love feels like. The kind that doesn’t get to be easy. The kind that asks everything of you and somehow still feels like the greatest gift of your life.

Why We Do This Work
Every time we show up to photograph a wedding, the two of us, together, side by side, we bring all of this with us.
We know what it feels like when love is the only thing that matters. We know what it looks like when two people decide they’re done waiting. We know that the most sacred moments don’t always happen on a grand stage, sometimes they happen on a red couch in a hotel lobby, with seven people and $250 and thirty years of friendship finally coming home.
When Josh is behind his camera and I’m behind mine, we’re not just documenting a wedding. We’re two people who have lived a love story, who are still living it, in all its beautiful, hard, unscripted truth, and we pour every bit of that into every frame we take.
That’s what we’re looking for. The realness. The weight of it. The joy that exists because of everything it took to get there.
If you’re planning your wedding in Chattanooga, whether it’s a grand ballroom affair or something small and perfectly you, we would be so honored to be there with you. Both of us. Together.
Because your love story deserves to be told. All of it.
Let’s talk at capturedbycairnsphotography.com

Captured by Cairns Photography Josh & Keri | Chattanooga, TN and surrounding areas