Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

Last month I featured all of the details of Cam’s wedding wardrobe, and this month it’s all about the bride! After working on so many weddings, I wanted a lot of our day to be very unusual from the norm, and part of that meant that a white dress was out of the question! I had a perfect mental picture of what I wanted and as luck would have it, I found the EXACT dress online the next day. Even better: the only one they had left was in my size, in the color I wanted! The teasers below show how great the color peaks out through the lace on it. You’ll have to wait until the wedding photos to see the whole thing :)

The seashells I used in the ring photo were collected over the years mostly from California, and some have come from where we are having our ceremony. As well, the pearl necklace belonged to my great grandmother.

I also included my “tragic” shoes at the end of the post. They were the first thing I purchased for the wedding (before the dress) and I was so in love with them. However, once the dress arrived, the slight difference in color was quite jarring! The dress is a green turquoise and the shoes a blue turquoise, and side by side they look terribly mismatched! I may have hoped no one would notice, but they’re pretty hard to walk in and our photos will have us traveling around the beach quite a bit. Instead, flats it is! I’ll just have to find other special places to wear them :)

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With my own wedding fast approaching, I wanted to give a few glimpses into what we’ll be wearing for the big day, starting with all of the groom’s accessories. Our wedding colors are turquoise, white, and black – and I guess Cam gets to be the bride! He’ll be wearing a custom tailored white linen suit from Indochino, while I won’t be wearing white! Best of all, we managed to find him a tie that perfectly matched my dress. With this being a beach wedding, we’re going with a sea theme so the octopus shows up a few times too. Sadly the pocket watch was too good of a steal off of a Chinese Etsy page and runs in almost double time, but at least it made for a good photo prop! (more…)

My last big wedding of the year was Dan and Heather’s celebration with all of their family and friends (some even coming from Europe!). Their ceremony was held in the beautiful St. Basil’s Church, and we followed up with photos before their reception at the Coast Hotel. The reception was tons of fun, and it’s rare to see that many people constantly dancing!

Dan and Heather are such wonderful, down to earth people and were so easy to work with again. They are absolutely joyous together in everything from their smiles and laughter to their body language. Their bridal party clearly shared in their happiness and made it such a warm, loving day :)

Congratulations, Dan and Heather! (more…)

I met Arieke a few years ago when she was a bridesmaid for her friend Gerda, and I was so happy to hear that she was engaged herself! Her and Kyle planned a gorgeous wedding and made sure we had lots of time for photos with them and their friends. Jan and I had so much fun with them all day and it went by so quickly! I was warned that Kyle doesn’t like having his picture taken, but I don’t believe them after how happy he always was around Arieke :) Those smiles took no coaxing at all!

Later I was so happy to be able to steal them away from their reception for a while for some beautiful portraits at dusk :)

Ceremony: Netherlands Reformed Church
Limo: California Dream Limo
Flowers: The Blooming Willow
Reception: Gem of the West

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Rose and Dainis came down from Calgary to have a low key wedding with their immediate family present. We met up in the coulees for some family photos and they were such a fun bunch. Rose and Dainis were so adorable and so patient sweating through the super hot weather we had to work with :) (more…)

When Erika told me that her and Jack were having a garden fairy tale themed wedding, I was so excited. Being such a Disney fan, it pulled on my heartstrings! Every detail they planned turned out beautifully and they had an absolutely perfect wedding. Everyone was so much fun to work with that they made the day just fly by. Erika and Jack were so in love and so great in front of the camera :)

Thanks to the crazy heat during the day, we got to spend some time in the evening taking outdoor photos, and I’m so glad they let me take them away in the dark for a bit :)

DJ: Sounds Unlimited
Cupcakes: Crazy Cakes
Decorator: A Decent Affair
Reception/Ceremony: Coast Hotel
Officiant: Norma Gibbon

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