Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

I always love working with this family! The entire family came together – all four brothers, their families, the parents, and even an uncle – over the long weekend in Waterton Lakes National Park, and I met up with them on Sunday to get photos of everyone together. The little boys are a lot taller since I last saw them, but sadly not as smiley this time since Hayden was recovering from a fever, and after pulling on Carson’s eyelid as soon as we started, they didn’t enjoy being near each other very much!

Waterton was kind of crazy (I guess I’ve never been there on a long weekend before) so we were limited with locations and couldn’t drive anywhere else, but we found a few awesome spots behind their cabin.

It’s been so fun to watch this family grow, and now with a new baby on the way and an engagement (that happened right before I showed up!) it’s getting even bigger! And now onto even more blue eyes than before… Read more here »

Chris and Sheana were married in Pavan Park on an absolutely beautiful, sunny day with their closest friends and family in attendance. Jan and I got to spend a few hours with them that day and we had a great time!

Everytime I’ve met with Chris and Sheana, I’ve been so impressed with how exceptionally nice they are. And when they are together and can be all lovey, they are so absolutely sweet. They are just such a perfect match! I’m so glad I was able to share your day with you :) Read more here »

I did Amber and Ian’s wedding a few years ago, and now they have two little ones, Noah and Zoe, with them in their family! We met down in Indian Battle Park for their first family photos since Zoe was born, and though she wasn’t too pleased throughout the session, she had enough quiet moments that we could hide it. They are such a cute family! Read more here »

Two mountain weddings in a row, I’m in heaven! :)

I first met Amy when we both took New Media in university, but she was a year ahead of me so I never really got to know her. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, though, we were able to keep in touch later, and I was so excited when she chose me to photograph her wedding! Her and Andrew live very close to Waterton, so they decided that would be the perfect location to have their wedding. They kept it very small and intimate with only their parents, her grandmothers, and their “baby,” Beans the dog, in attendance at the ceremony; after we were done photos, they had a small reception in town for their extended family.

What a perfect wedding! We all met on the main road, then headed towards Red Rock Canyon where we pulled over and did a small hike to a field of wildflowers. From that spot, we were surrounded by mountains and couldn’t even see a peak of any of the roads. It was such a romantic location.

Amy was up for anything for photos, and was luckily able to talk Andrew into the same! We had no trouble keeping up with each other, and I was thrilled by all the things she was willing and wanted to do for photos :)
It’s hard to top a rock climbing, canoe rowing bride!

I was assisted by my buddy Sarah, who luckily happened to be back in town from Kamloops that day. Read more here »

In June, my mom and I went to Disneyland (yes, again), and unfortunately Cameron wasn’t able to get the time off of work to come along with us. We spent my last day in town together, and we both took the day off of work. For him to get the day off, he said, he had to go into work earlier the next morning, so we had a quick goodbye while I was half asleep and when my parents later picked me up, it was only myself in the house.

Shortly after my mom and I arrived at the airport, we walked over to the ticketing area and I started to fill out the customs form before we got in line. My mom went, “Hey,” to me, and pointed behind me. This made me aware that there was someone there, so I apologized and inched over to give them space to get to the counter.

“No, look,” my mom said. I turned around and Cam was there!

My first reaction was to cry, and I thought he had come all that way just to say goodbye to me in a much more romantic way. Instead of saying anything, I just stared blankly at him because I was having trouble processing why he would do this or how he got there.

“I thought I should come along,” he said, and held up his passport and ticket, so I cried even harder (but in a happy way!).

The two of them had been plotting this for a long time. We had booked our flight when my mom was in town, and Cam had casually looked at my confirmation and rushed downstairs to book the seat next to us on his own computer.

There’s a little more to the story… Read more here »

My favorite weddings are always when friends get married, and it means even more when I’ve known them since childhood. Though I didn’t really know Josh in high school, I’ve known Erika since grade 4, or maybe even grade 2! So, when people at the reception watching the slideshow laughed at her school photo where her hair was in a teased mullet, my laugh wasn’t so much of shock because I remember that photo :) I could probably dig up some other equally embarrassing ones out of my mom’s photos of my birthday parties, but I won’t!

Erika and Josh have been together for many years, and decided they wanted to take the time now to celebrate their relationship and bring all of their friends and family together. Though they’ve moved away from the Crowsnest Pass, they decided to have their wedding there. It was so great to be back with a bunch of school mates in the place where we grew up.

They had their wedding on top of the Pass Powderkeg ski hill, which luckily was finally free of snow (I knew a few people who referred to the Pass as “Snow Hell” this spring because the huge snow banks just wouldn’t melt). It was such a beautiful location overlooking the town and mountains, and they couldn’t have chosen a better spot.

I had so much fun hanging out with them for photos. Everyone was hilarious and constantly laughing. Erika and Josh were so crazy in love that I barely had to do anything to get those smiles out of them.

I’m so happy to have been a part of your day :) Read more here »