Thanks to all the brides and their loved ones who took the time to visit with us in our little alcove out of the atrium traffic. We’re following up with all of you today and eager to see how we can help you with your wedding plans. And we were absolutely honored when bride-to-be Kimberly Cunningham of Pelham booked us on the spot at the bridal show to photograph her wedding next summer to Matt McCune. We had so much fun meeting her mom, mom-in-law-to-be and sister and we’re so excited about the Old Hollywood photo ideas we talked about!

Here are some photos of our booth, with gorgeous flowers from Hothouse Design Studio. Norton’s decorated our event room and the adorable arrangement in the lower left is from there. We loved seeing J Ross Railey and owner Gus Pappas, who were our sideways booth neighbors.

Daniel and me, on a rare occasion when we get our photo taken. Photo by Jessica Cannon of The Alabama Theatre.

I accented our booth with fuschia chair sashes, which in retrospect had quite an Aerosmith feel to them!

Thanks so much to Jessica Cannon of The Alabama Theatre for taking our photo and for displaying one of our bridal portraits in her booth. We enjoyed chatting with her and her cool mom, since they were right cross from us at the show.

Jessica Cannon of The Alabama Theatre and her wonderful mom were our booth buddies across the aisle at the Soho Bridal Show.

So many of our wedding friends were at the show. Mandy Majerik of Hothouse Design Studio unveiled her new service, event design, to complement her floral artistry. We were so proud Mandy asked us to photograph her for the marketing of this great new endeavor and we were blown away by what she and her graphic artist have come up with for the images.

Hothouse Design Studio's new event design service marketing includes Daniel Taylor Photography!

The gorgeous Hothouse Design Studio room at the Soho Bridal Show.

More Hothouse Design Studio art.

Meghan Cease of  M Elizabeth Events created a beautiful room and booth at the show and gave us some great advice as we prepared our own booth. Brides, I’m telling you, hiring a planner for several hours of consultation, day-of coordinating or overall planning is one of the best things you can do to get a handle on your event, pull together creative details, and reduce your stress! We see it week after week. Brides with planners are more relaxed on the day, so are the women in their family. That translates into more beautiful pictures! If you think you can’t afford it, send a planner an e-mail and ASK! You will be surprised by the options.

We have some gorgeous new things we showed off at SOHO Bridal Show. We’ll have silk photo portfolio from Cypress Albums, makers of luxury handmade photo albums, folios and photo . This is one of the few names in wedding products that makes the pros say “Oooh.” We also have gorgeous photo boxes to hold our newest package option, 4×6 print sets, perfect for you, parents, or grandparents. We had so many requests for boxed print sets, we wanted to add something special to our Fall 2010 package options. In addition to print credits, packages now offer a choice of a set of print highlights in one of these exquisite boxes.

New for Fall 2010: The boxed print set with silk and damask.

Our exquisite new photo folios from Cypress Album, the perfect weddding keepsake gift for the loved ones in your life. And they come in tons of colors!

Rarely have a seen entire families and wedding party members so excited  about a wedding. That kind of emotion adds tremendously to the photography and makes it incredibly fun for everyone, including the photographers! Everyone was smiling, hugging, crying, dancing. Simply wonderful.

Tori’s gorgeous dress was from Bella Couture in Mt Laurel. Our friends John and Angela Deaver of Main Street Productions captured everything on video and James Coats of Coats Classic Cars brought a gorgeous getaway car for the newlyweds.

Mitchell and Tori, thank you so much for giving us the honor of photographing your wedding day!

Jessica and Shane had a gorgeous wedding affair, with the ceremony at Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Vestavia Hills and the chic reception at The White Loft downtown. Jessica’s fab gown came from Bella Couture in Mt Laurel and the bouquets were by the amazing Vince at Flower Stems. The couple were surrounded by the love of tons of family and friends, including sorority and fraternity members who serenaded the bride and groom. We had so much fun getting to know everyone. Thanks, guys, for letting us document your special day!

Here are a few of the Wileys’ beautiful wedding previews:

Jennifer's Grecian-style gown.

Jennifer and James were married Saturday Saturday at the incredible Holy Trinity-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral downtown. It was a beautiful Greek ceremony with plenty of Greek touches, from Jen’s Grecian-style dress to the ceremony to plenty of Greek dancing at the reception. Love from family and friends just filled the sanctuary and spilled over to the reception. And what a fun group! I should have known it was going to be fun when, during the formal portraits, little Catherine, Jen’s niece, decided to, uh, dig for gold. James never missed a beat and did a fake “dig for gold” himself. It cracked up the entire group and will probably haunt Catherine to her own wedding day!

Ken Kiester of Norton’s florist did one of his final weddings in Birmingham before moving out of state. We’re so sorry to see him go. James and Jen’s floral design was stunning in dramatic blues and cool greens. We also met Norton’s new event coordinator, Ross Railey, who has moved to the ‘Ham from Decatur. Can’t wait to work with him!

The beautiful and yummy cakes were from our friend Jan Moon of Dreamcakes Bakery in Homewood. Catering was by the Gourmet Pantry in Vestavia. Two of my favorites were the Asian chicken and the meatballs!

James and Jennifer are such an adorable couple! We wish them many, many years of happiness together. Can’t wait for our next photo shoot together!

First moments together.

James and Catherine lighten things up during the formal family portraits.

Jen and her dad, Andrew Collins.

Cakes by Dreamcakes.

Florals by Norton's.

Her sister's first dance brings Leah, in blue, to tears.

Congratulations to Philip and Cassie Benson Pitts, who celebrated there first year of marriage over the weekend!

Cassie has been one of our most-talked about brides this year. Most everyone who has seen her photos on our web site, in our sample albums and in portraits at bridal shows has stopped to say “wow.” People have asked us for the name of her beautiful wedding venue (her parents’ home in Birmingham) and people have lingered over the images to take in every detail.

Cassie and Philip were so much fun to work with. Believe it or not, Cassie and her family say she hates having her picture made and they were all stunned by how much she embraced the camera on her wedding day. We’d like to think it had something to do with great photographers, lol!

My favorite thing about this couple was that they created a personal wedding that perfectly reflected their personalities. They didn’t load up on dozens upon dozens of posed family photos. Instead, they opted for more candids. Cassie walked down the aisle to rat packer Dean Martin’s “Fly Me to the Moon.” And Philip, his dad and a long-time family friend requested a photo of their long-standing tradition of drinking milk at special events.

Jill Sampson of Weddings by Jill, based in Montgomery, did a phenomenal job on the flowers, planning and overall event design. Jill has a sense of calm that relaxes her brides and an approach to planning that makes all the vendors certain that everything is under control. Plus, Jill is tons of fun!

All the best, Philip and Cassie. We wish you many more years of happiness beyond your wildest dreams!

Here are a few highlights from Cassie and Philip’s gorgeous wedding on May 30, 2009:

This has never happened–the previous record  for popular photos was three from the same event. Check out what all the buzz is about. For Mr. and Mrs. Wilson’s full wedding photo preview, click here. For Friday’s original blog post on Brian and Rachel, click here.

Check out a few of the top  images:

We were also tickled to go back to the always beautiful Altadena Valley Presbyterian Church. Wedding director Sue Ann Oakes, of AVPC, always takes good care of us and makes sure everything runs smoothly. Having a team of wedding professionals who know each other is an added bonus on such a special day. Videographer/filmmaker Paul Bryant of Kinora Films manned the Super 8 film camera. We’ve gotten to know Paul, one of Brian’s good friends, in the last few months and it was really fun to be part of a team together. And the stunning orange and green florals were by Carolyn Crowe of The Pink Pear.

The gorgeous, yummy cakes were from Edgar’s Bakery and the wonderful food was from Creative Catering by Shirlee. The mini wheat pita sandwiches with grilled chicken and sprouts and the quesadillas were my favorites!

After the reception, Rachel, Brian, Paul, Daniel and I all headed to a nearby field for an after-session. Paul had the idea to go up on the hill and the results speak for themselves. Just gorgeous.

We wish Brian and Rachel a lifetime of happiness. Thanks so much for entrusting your memories to us!

A little of the back story: Brian and Daniel became friends at Daniel’s second home, Primavera coffee, in Cahaba Heights, where Brian is an amazing roaster and latte maker. If my husband goes missing, that’s where he is.

Brian and Rachel’s reception featured an art gallery theme with a very popular espresso bar. Brian even took a few minutes to make Rachel her first coffee as a married woman, complete with a foam heart!

In the meantime, I sifted through some of last summer’s wedding files and gave Trisha some highlights of our wedding after-session with Brittany and Johnathan, who spent their honeymoon night at the Tutwiler The couple had rented this cool car from Ron Marko’s Vintage Auto, but the trunk was too small for all their luggage.

Daniel and I drove over the extra luggage, and captured a few action shots along the way. Then we spent a few minutes capturing some of these stunning photos from the wedding after-session. Right after the wedding is a fantastic time to get some of those amazing, oh-so-intimate moments from a newly married couple, and we’re getting more and more requests for them.

Daniel Taylor Photography

We felt like Christmas came early when Melanie, one of the new owners of Anderson Gail Farms in Shelby, invited us down for a photo session at her gorgeous mansion. We knew that Shawna was the perfect bride for this amazing place. Shawna is a all-American beauty and we thought she was a natural for AGF.

Shawna married her sweetie Darrell in a wonderful outdoor ceremony Saturday at Huckleberry Farm in Jasper. We can finally show off her stunning bridal session highlights. Stay tuned for some awesome wedding photos! Jackie Robinson was the make-up artist for both of Shawna’s photo shoots.

We wish Shawna and Darrell a lifetime of happiness. We know your families are thrilled by your union and we couldn’t have been more honored to capture your wedding day!

Daniel Taylor Photography

Daniel Taylor Photography

Daniel Taylor Photography

Daniel Taylor Photography

Daniel Taylor Photography

Daniel Taylor Photography

Daniel Taylor Photography