Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

Though their family is grown up and many have moved away, the Walton family was all together this weekend once again! I met up with Frank and Donna, their four boys, and their mini families to give them a much needed update to their old family photos. Aside from the usual teasing brothers do to each other, they got along so great and instantly started goofing around whenever they had to get in close together. We had a beautiful day and with such a good looking family, it wasn’t very hard to take their photos :) (more…)

Jacob and Bryanne were married last week at Maranatha Reformed Church and had a beautiful wedding on an absolutely beautiful day. These two are super hot and were a dream to work with, and it doesn’t hurt that they are both so sweet :)

Since they were married on the west side and we had a lot of ideas to fit in, we did all the formals on that side of Lethbridge. I always feel like the west side doesn’t have enough locations, but with some special permissions her mom dug up and a few neat little nooks, we totally rocked it! (Although the bridal party was genuinely confused at first to be taken to Taco Bell.)

We had so much fun with everyone, especially when they all cut loose at the playground :) (more…)

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… (more…)

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 :) (more…)

Last week I met up with Michele, Gilles, Andrew, and Matt, along with their dog Krystal, for some long overdue family photos! Michele said it’s been many years since they last had them done, and the boys are definitely at that stage where they are growing up fast (and will be moving out on their own soon), so it was a great time to capture who they are right now. They were all super easy to work with, and the only challenge came in getting Krystal’s attention; she’s deaf, so it took a lot of arm waving to get her to look the right way! (more…)

A few weeks ago I headed to the Crowsnest Pass to welcome Mark and Sarah’s first baby, Nate, into the world with a family photo session getting everyone involved. Unfortunately it was raining that whole weekend so we weren’t able to make use of the gorgeous scenery around Sarah’s parents’ ranch, but they had a wonderful house in which we were able to stay warm. Nate is a super cute, easy going baby and it was fun to see his grandparents totally beaming over him. I hadn’t seen Mark and Sarah in quite a while so it was great to have some time to catch up. They are going to make awesome parents, and Nate is lucky to have such sweet grandparents! (more…)