Florence Wedding

Florence is a city in Lauderdale County which is situated in the northwest corner of Alabama. According to the 2000 census, the city's population was 36,264. The seat of Lauderdale County, Florence is the largest and principal city of the Florence - Muscle Shoals Metropolitan Statistical Area known as "The Shoals" (which also includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia metropolitan areas and Colbert and Lauderdale counties). It is the economic center of northwestern Alabama.

Florence was surveyed for the Cypress Land Company in 1818 by Austrian surveyor Ferdinand Sannoner who named it for his favorite city, Tuscany's famous capital, Florence - which also had a prominent river, the Arno. Florence was first incorporated in 1826.

Florence is the birthplace of W.C. Handy, the "Father of the Blues," as well as of pioneering record producer Sam Phillips, discoverer of Elvis Presley. T.S. Stribling, a 20th century author and Florence resident, wrote a prose trilogy about the city consisting of The Forge, The Store (which won the Pulitzer Prize), and Unfinished Cathedral.