Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

This is probably going to be the longest wedding blog I ever do (so much for trying to narrow these down to under 40 images)! Juli and Dan were married at the end of June at Lethbridge’s gorgeous Norland Bed & Breakfast and had one of the most unique and colorful weddings I have ever been to. Juli and Dan both spent a lot of time traveling in India and adored the culture, and wanted to incorporate it into their day. Everything was so vibrant and beautiful that I nearly ran out of memory cards!

I was especially honored to be a part of this wedding because I’ve known Juli and Dan for quite some time now. Juli is our yoga instructor at Ammena Dance Company, and has also started dancing with us a bit. When I first met Dan, I assumed they were already married because the connection between them was just so powerful! If soulmates exist, that is the perfect word to describe these two; I have never seen two people more suited to each other.

Their wedding was full of excitement and happiness. Everyone danced and smiled all night. Despite us all being eaten by mosquitoes, no one let it get them down. Even when I was done I stayed for another hour and danced! (more…)

I only became involved in Don and Anna’s wedding one week before it happened, and I’m so glad I was free that day because I had such a fantastic time with them! They had an intimate ceremony at St. Pat’s Church, which was full of endless cute and sweet moments, and despite a forecast calling for rain or snow, we ended up with gorgeous weather for their outdoor photos. They were both natural supermodels and I hardly had to provide any direction at all during the photo session. I spent most of our time together giggling at their antics; I love when people are willing to act silly :) (more…)

What a way to welcome in wedding season! Sarah and I joined Jonny and Gerda, their families, and their sharp dressed friends last week for their exceptionally fun wedding. Everyone was lively and so happy, and Gerda and Jonny are so cute together. I absolutely loved their stylish, unique choice of wardrobe for the bridal party. (Can you believe Jonny picked out the dresses?) The yellow was so striking everywhere we went, and the guys’ suits were absolutely classic (and a little gangster, which I love!).

We also lucked out with the weather. The week before their wedding, it kept snowing and raining, and the ground everywhere was white and muddy. I begged the snow the night before to melt before we set outside to do the formals, and it listened to me! We even found a lot of green space even though Lethbridge isn’t really in bloom yet. It’s all about faking it :)

I had such a great time with everyone and loved that these two wanted photos that reflected their youthful vibrant personalities… even if that meant climbing up on pool tables! (more…)

This Halloween, Andrew Suderman was gracious enough to let me second-shoot for him for this really unique wedding! Doug and Kristine combined the chilly autumn weather with some excellent Halloween elements, which was right up my alley :)

I had Andrew assist me earlier this year, so it was cool to switch the roles. He’s a super awesome up and coming photographer in town, so make sure you check out his Flickr page!

Doug and Kris started with a “regular” wedding (well, regular but with Halloween decorations) in the German Canadian Club, and then we went outside for family photos. Unfortunately the wind was a chilly 80km/hr that day, so we weren’t able to stay outside for very long! Andrew set up his lights inside, so I wandered around capturing all the neat little details they had arranged in the hall.

After the lunch reception (they had an early wedding), we drove out to Stirling to go to the renown Haunted House! We were instructed that we could take photos inside, as long as they looked “creepy.” I am so glad Andrew had a flashlight in his gear bag so we could focus our cameras on them! And I have to admit, I was a very bad second shooter and totally hijacked that portion of the shoot! ;)

Their second, evening reception saw all the guests return in Halloween costumes. So much fun! (more…)

Again we are going back to August with this one! Michael Warf invited me along to second shoot Jon and Dana’s wedding in scenic Waterton, and I had such an amazing time! We were with them all day, right through to the party. Together with their bridal party they were a TON of fun – most of them knew each other from film school, and well, I like film school kinds of people :)

In keeping with that theme, Michael arranged a photo shoot in the old movie theatre in Waterton, and it couldn’t have been more perfect for those two.

Plus, these two were sooooo crazy in love. Dana’s gorgeous doe eyes were always oozing with adoration; I know “oozing” isn’t a very romantic word, but I can’t think of anything more descriptive of it!

I had trouble narrowing these down because we did so many things throughout the day, so these might take a little while to load :)

First though, a tale of my brush with nature! When I first arrived in Waterton, I had about an hour before I needed to meet Michael and his assistant Brien, so I grabbed a wrap from Subway and found a bench overlooking the lake. The deer in the area are very conditioned to all the tourists, so they graze quite close to humans throughout the town. As I sat there eating my lunch, a group of three does wandered by me, munching on the grass. Soon one turned around and started walking towards me. “It’s getting awfully close!” I thought, assuming it would stop at a certain point… but NO, before I knew what happened I was holding my wrap away from the deer’s grasp while having my cheek nuzzled! After realizing it would not be able to share any honey mustard goodness, it backed off and went back to finding stray leaves. Unfortunately, all the nearby people were too busy gawking at the sight to take a photo of it! You’ll have to take my word for it… I’m like Snow White!

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Alright, now that I am done weddings for a while, I can catch up on a few weddings I second shot on! (Though each time I think I am done, another seems to pop up…) This one was shot with Michael Warf waaaaay back in August in Calgary. We accompanied Frank and Val to Calgary to celebrate their special day… at the Calgary Zoo! Unfortunately the weather was so cold and miserable that day, so our time spent outside was not as pleasant as it could have been, but we made due!
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