Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

This may look like a Christmas wedding, but these snowy Norland wedding portraits were part of the wild fall weather we’ve had! Janita and William didn’t let the cold temperatures or second snowfall slow down their wedding plans. They were just as enthusiastic about the snow, which looked amazing with the rich reds in their colour scheme.

The wedding party and their spouses tag teamed keeping the couple warm by picking up hot chocolate, being ready with blankets behind the scenes of the photos, and parking their truck nearby so everyone could warm up in shifts.

Janita’s family lives just down the road from the Norland, plus the venue is only one block away from their church, so it was the perfect place to do their wedding photos! There were still a few autumn colours here and there while the beautiful beams of sunlight provided welcome relief from the cold for everyone.

From the time Janita’s father started laying on the dad jokes during getting ready photos to siblings lightly teasing the couple during their reception, everyone was in a constant state of laughter and joy all day long.

Congratulations, Janita & William!

It seems to be becoming a tradition that when Marg and Craig get their family together for photos, the wind comes along too! We first experienced this in a big way for their daughter’s wedding in Waterton. A couple years later, the wind arrived just in time that morning. Luckily this left us with tons of leaves on the ground for the kids to play with during their Henderson Lake extended family session and the big trees at the park provided just enough shelter.

Marg and Craig’s children and grandkids traveled from around Alberta to be there for their morning photos in Lethbridge and everyone had so much fun playing together! The kids couldn’t decide if they should play with each other, with their aunts and uncles, or with Grandma and Grandpa, all of whom were showering them with attention.

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Siblings Carter, Payton, Maddie, and Jase needed some updated photos (at least according to their mom!) so I went out to their grandma’s awesome farm for their Welling autumn children’s family photos. The kids love hanging out here and helped me find all kinds of neat hidden spots, like a rustic barn loft. Even though the wind had hit our region hard that day, the gorgeous mountain ash tree in the yard had held itself together. Any of the leaves that didn’t survive the afternoon made perfect leaf tossing arsenal!

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Jordanna and Deiter managed to sneak in vibrant Lethbridge autumn engagement photos before the snow arrived! We used lots of snuggling and hand holding to get them through the crisp cold that day. I think they did a great acting job making it look like a warm autumn evening. It definitely helps that they are so cute when they cuddle each other! I had a great time exploring the Helen Schuler Nature Reserve with this upbeat couple and can’t wait for their wedding in a few months.

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When Erica contacted me to do her 10th anniversary family photos, I thought it would be fun to dig up her and Bill’s wedding photos from a decade ago for comparison. This is one of the weddings I did before I had my own business so it was going way back! Some of the photos were a little embarrassing to look back on, but I loved seeing how much I’ve improved since then.

Some observations:
1. Crazy Cakes has always had that square hole in the wall. (I’d normally edit that out, but it’s cute to see the building hasn’t aged much!)
2. Ten years ago the Dutch angle was very popular in wedding photography and I had a lot of trouble pulling out old photos to recreate that didn’t make me dizzy with their tilt. Wikipedia says, “the Dutch angle is one of many cinematic techniques often used to portray psychological uneasiness or tension in the subject being filmed,” making me scratch my head as to how this was such a huge wedding photography trend!
3. Erica and Bill are just as in love as 10 years ago.

It’s amazing to see the happy family they’ve grown into. Their two boys are such joyful, energetic kids and had a blast finding new surfaces to jump off of throughout the photos. We started the session downtown to revisit a few of the locations we had used in their wedding photos. Next we headed to the Helen Schuler Nature Reserve so we could make giant piles of leaves for throwing. I think our success at having fun is directly related to how many leaves the boys had to pull out of their shirts when we were done!

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I love seeing this family grow every year! Melissa and Schuyler brought their children out for Pavan Park autumn morning family photos on the tailend of the season. We were very lucky with this beautiful day as we had to reschedule once due to a huge blizzard! These are their first full family photos since their littlest arrived (he had his own newborn session while his siblings were out of the house on adventures). It was adorable seeing how much his brother and sisters looked after him. Whenever he fussed, they tried to cheer him up, and they helped Mom and Dad pack him around. We’ve traditionally done their family photos around their home instead, so this was a new experience with lots of exploration opportunities. The kids loved throwing the leaves, exploring through the trees, and sliding down the banks to the river.

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