Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Baby Adelita has arrived! (Which means Groot the dog is a big brother now!) I got to meet her at her Coaldale newborn session and loved seeing how happy her parents are every time they look at her. Adelita was used to company by now because her grandmother was visiting to help the first time parents out.

I was so excited to hear from Kelsie and Scott a few years after their wedding when they were expecting their first baby! We patiently waited through a few snow-postponements for their Aperture Park maternity session. Kelsie had picked out such a vibrant green dress to wear and didn’t want to lose it by bundling up in winter gear!

They brought along their fur baby Groot, who had a blast at the park. Despite their best efforts to run off his energy earlier that day, the new smells were just too exciting! Groot, however, was on his best behaviour and paused from bouncing around any time he was needed for a photo.

Margie and Daryl decided on a Waterton destination wedding in the late summer when planning their event. Their intimate Bayshore Inn wedding ceremony was held outdoors in the hotel’s yard overlooking the lake. They made the day special for their children by having them come along for all of their portraits and letting them have a full tour of the national park.

We were so excited that Red Rock Canyon reopened this year and we could finally go back there for photos! Margie and Daryl loved it from the samples I showed them and were ready for adventure at the end of their portraits. Margie was so excited to get down into the water that she asked about it before I suggested any rock climbing! It always give the tourists quite a show to see people in formal wear scaling the rocks and gingerly stepping over the wet pebbles in the stream.

This couple hardly needed any direction, which is especially impressive once you see their huge upside down dip!

Congratulations, Margie and Daryl!

Odessa and her family wanted to update their family photos to celebrate their move to the city. They thought it would be fun to have something iconic to Lethbridge in their photos, and what could be more Lethbridge than the high level bridge?

We worked out a date when Odessa’s oldest son was visiting from university. The younger twins had a blast hanging out with their big brother again. The three of them had competitions of jumping over posts in the park, took turns giving each other piggyback rides, and enjoyed climbing on the bridge even when it wasn’t part of the photos.

Their family has such an amazing connection to each other, making the photo session feel more like a playful outing than an actual photoshoot!

After being engaged for several years, Alyssa and Israel had a big wedding planned… and then COVID hit! Not wanting to extend their engagement another year, they decided to turn their big wedding into a destination elopement in Waterton. They had their Waterton lakeshore elopement in the late afternoon. The spot they chose was their favourite view from their nearby accommodations at the Bayshore Inn, and conveniently the area had the fewest tourists!

Alyssa and Israel were adorable and fawning over each other from the moment I first met them in person. They constantly made each other laugh, could rarely be found not embracing, and Israel frequently stole kisses. Half the time I barely had to pose them because they’d naturally fall into each other’s arms once I told them where to stand! Their elopement was an amazing chance for them to get away for a weekend together and focus only on each other, which they were obviously very happy to do :)

Congratulations, Alyssa and Israel!

To celebrate their parents’ 40th wedding anniversary, Chris and Len’s children and grandchildren made a special trip back home. This would be a great time for photos! They spent some time debating where to do their session, and finally decided on Picture Butte farm photos at the family’s home. This meant an easy day for the grandkids not needing to travel, adding an extra layer of sentimental value to their photos, and having the beautiful grove of trees as a backdrop!

The kids resisted the lure of the play area just long enough for the groups we needed, mostly thanks to help from their moms to keep them occupied and happy in between poses. As soon as they were out of the frame, the kids could be found jumping around and climbing on the trees.

Chris and Len beamed with pride watching their family play. They wouldn’t have wanted to celebrate their anniversary any other way!