Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

A week ago Jan and I headed over to Cardston for Venus and Trevor’s temple wedding. What cuties they are! I had a great time with them and their itty bitty bridal party, and they were so much fun! They came prepared to have fun in their photos and it made the day run so smooth.

I was very excited to see the zebra shoes Venus and her sister picked – if you see me much at all, you know how big a deal that is for me… I have a bit of an “obsession” with that pattern ;) Venus, thanks for keeping me in mind when shoe shopping!

They had a few requests for their photos, specifically: a field, and a tractor. Jan and I came to Cardston early, and were met with great luck for locations! Actually, the luck was too good, and I found so many places where I wanted to shoot, most of which we just didn’t have time for. At least we got to the best ones :)

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This last very beautiful Saturday I got to shoot the wedding of Eric and Chelsey (Julie’s bridesmaid) and had such a great time…. I anticipated it would be so much fun, and I was not let down at all! These two are young, totally in love, and (my personal favorite) a little bit silly, which all amounted to such great moments for me to capture! We worked super fast to fit in all the wonderful ideas we had, and ran totally on time all day – they even had time for a few spins on the ferris wheel!

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I always say how much I love working with people multiple times, and Julie and Chad are no exception. The last time I saw them was when Eric and Chad’s sister Ashley got married, and this time around the couples switched roles. The weather was considerably better than the last time so we were able to spend quite a bit more time playing outside. I had so much fun with all of them, and I loved how open everyone was to anything.

Julie and Chad are so sweet together and made my job totally easy :)

I get one more round with Julie soon when her friend Chelsey (the slightly taller bridesmaid here) gets married, and I’m so excited to work with those girls again.

Oh, and there are a LOT of photos after the cut! The further along this summer goes, the harder a time I am having narrow the photos down for blogs!

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A few years ago I photographed Cassie’s wedding, which I believe was my third I ever did on my own, and I met two great people: Cassie’s brother Brad who I became great friends with, and Cassie’s best friend Stephanie. Well, Stephanie and her man Doug finally decided to tie the knot themselves, and I was so happy to be a part of their wedding as well! They put together a small but beautiful and well thought out Japanese-themed wedding, and had their ceremony and reception at the new Lethbridge Buddhist Temple, the very first wedding ever held there! It was such an honor to be a part of that, and the Temple was so beautiful (especially the shrine).

Stephanie and Doug are also huge car enthusiasts, and Stephanie was especially hoping they could borrow a red Corvette for the wedding day. The plans for it fell through so they settled for a white Yukon, but when Doug went to the dealership to pick it up, they happened to have a red Corvette sitting in the lot! He decided to surprise Steph with it, and even as they came out of the Temple and saw it, she still didn’t know it was theirs to use. He even strung her along a little when she saw it, saying he didn’t know who it belonged to, then suggested they steal it ;)

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On one of my “free” weekends in June I got to switch my usual role and second shoot for Jan Tajcnar. Jan always second shot for me at Litwin Photography, and now our schedules never match, so we hardly ever get to shoot together… this really bums me out, because Jan is a load of fun and is super talented! I had a great day with her in Taber shooting Ashley and Bryce’s wedding. This was surprisingly my first time in Taber, and I was so impressed with the locations Jan had scouted; I’ll have to drive out there for photos more often! It definitely felt like we didn’t have enough time with this exceptionally fun bridal party.

It was a really nice change not to be leading the day as it gave me a little more time to “think outside the box” and be more aware of the little moments happening around me. So while Jan was busy with the guys getting ready and chatting with them, I was looking for something new I could do for a ring shot…

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Alisa and Chris’s wedding was one I had been looking forward to for quite a long time, since they were one of my earlier bookings for this year’s weddings and I had such a great time with them earlier this summer taking their first family photos after their little Eva was born. They chose the Norland Bed and Breakfast as their ceremony, getting ready, and weekend retreat location, and I couldn’t have been happier as this is one of my favorite places in Lethbridge! Not everyone is so blessed to have a huge white, pillared mansion with a grand piano to call their own, so it is nice to fake it once in a while ;)

Alisa was a little stressed before the ceremony since she was running a bit behind (which most brides do anyhow), but you could see all her concerns melt away the moment she saw Chris as she came up the aisle :)

We had a beautiful day to work with, and they were surrounded by so much love from their friends and family. Everyone was so great to work with, and I loved that Alisa was willing to yell at people to make my day go easier, ha ha!

I hope you guys are having fun in Vegas! Extra thanks to my second shooter for the day, Andrew Suderman, who was awesome to work with for the first time!

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