The Battle House, Mobile, AL | Mariaya & Michael's Wedding

Mariaya's wedding is one I will never forget, not just the day itself but the details surrounding it. She was married to Michael at the Battle House in downtown Mobile, AL on Christmas Eve 2012. It's almost a four hour drive from where I live to Mobile, so on top of the holiday becoming a long work day, I had 8 hours of additional time driving to get home at 3am Christmas morning. The natural thought would be, "why would anyone want to get married on Christmas Eve?" The day held special meaning for the couple and they had a history of celebrating it with family and intended to have, not necessarily a small wedding, but an intimate one with just their closest friends and family. It was certainly a cheery day and the closeness of the couple with their loved ones was visible and made it obvious that there was no where anyone would rather be. I especially remember that the food from the Marriott Renaissance-owned hotel was phenomenal. Thought the weather was sunny, it was quite cold and the entire wedding took place inside the hotel, and I made liberal use of one of my then-recent lighting purchase, a PCB Einstein strobe. It allowed me to add natural-looking beautiful lighting where the available electric and window lighting was "intimate" (see: dim).