Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

Many many years ago I met “Pleasant” Ross through our mutual friends in the university’s music department, and when I met Erin I was thrilled to find out she perfectly matched him in charm (she is officially “Pleasant Erin” now). The two were married at the Galt, which is always one of my favorite places in Lethbridge, and had their wonderful, silly friends standing up along with them. All the tears Erin and Ross fought back during the ceremony had me emotional too, and it’s always much stronger when I know the people!

I had so much fun with them all day, and their bridal party never failed to keep me entertained (I was delighted the week after when, second shooting for Michael, one of the same groomsmen showed up in that bridal party!)

The reception was a fantastic party where everyone was full of energy and had so much fun (the candy bar may be to blame for some of that). Normally I don’t post a ton of reception photos, but in this case I couldn’t resist :)

Thank you to Jan for helping out again! (more…)

I first met Jen and Brad a few years ago when Brad’s best man Kurt got married, and I photographed his wedding with Cara. It was so great to get to work with them all again and I had just as much fun as the last time! Jen and Brad are sweet and easygoing, and seem so amazingly comfortable together.

They had a beautiful outdoor wedding at the Research Center, though we definitely could have used fewer mosquitoes! The entire bridal party was a blast to work with. Jen and Brad even included their blonde “children” in a few photos, and though the drool getting near her dress was quite terrifying at times, I’m so glad they brought the dogs along. Special thanks to Starsha Battrick for assisting all day! (more…)

This last weekend I was reunited with two of the Rice boys and their families. I did both of their weddings, and now they have brand new little blue eyed boys to add to the family! We did the photos in Prince’s Island Park in downtown Calgary, and were able to easily get around all the Calgary Folk Festival attendees. I put Cassandra behind the camera this time as my assistant to generally jump around, wave her arms, shout crazy songs, and dance like a monkey for the babies. As you will see, Cassandra makes a very amusing monkey, at least according to these boys. I’m not sure I have ever seen such smiley babies. There weren’t even any meltdowns!

WARNING: Lots of blue eyes ahead!! (more…)

Mike and LeeAnna had a beautiful wedding at the beginning of July; we had a gorgeous day to work with and these two were radiating so much love that you couldn’t help but be totally happy around them! When I first met them I loved how cute they were and thought they had two of the most likeable personalities I’ve ever come across.

LeeAnna and Mike chose to see each other before the ceremony, which is always my favorite thing to do to get the most genuine emotions. They were so lost in each other when they first walked up and made contact that I felt bad to interupt them when it was time for posing!

When their bridal party showed up, we took everyone out to play, and Jan Tajcnar helped me out for the day for her usual sneaky paparazzi photos. (more…)

I’ve worked with Mike for almost two years now, and for quite a while he’s been raving about Amy but since she lives in Saskatchewan, I never had a chance to meet her until now. I had a great time with them and was pleased to see Amy can keep up with Mike’s energetic nature (and she was even better at jumping than him, so he’s definitely met his match!). It’s pretty cute how sweet on each other they are too :)

Aside from increasing my mosquito bite count to an immeasurable amount, I was so happy with the first location we went to; in all my time here I have done photos all around it, but never that exact spot! (more…)

This weekend I got to meet Brina and Shaun and I had a great time with them doing their engagement photos! The two aren’t getting married until next year, but they wanted to make sure they had photos while everything is still such a luscious green from all the rain we’ve had. They brought along her mom’s sweet little doggies for some photos, which I love because even furry little animals count as your siblings if they belong to your mom :)

Not only were the pups easy to work with, but Brina and Shaun were a delight as well! Brina is pretty much always laughing (or smiling at the very least!) and Shaun has such a caring, calm nature to him. I didn’t have to work too hard to get them to laugh at me ;) (more…)