Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Remember the Scrabble marriage proposal? I had the honour of joining Meg and Shieghla again for their Bayshore Inn early spring wedding. It really is a privilege to follow people through so many important moments like these, especially when they and their families are so kind and wonderful to be around.

We returned to Waterton where they had an outdoor ceremony at the Bayshore Inn, officiated by MLA Shannon Phillips. Their children played a prominent role in the wedding – not just helping with the proposal, but by being in the wedding party! Shieghla and Meg’s sisters made up the rest of the group and led to some very emotional speeches at the reception.

Originally we hadn’t planned to return to the proposal spot at the Prince of Wales, but with most of the shorelines in town being flooded out from the recent rain and snow melt, we made a last minute change and returned to the same spot as before. Just before the reception, we went to Cameron Lake with only the couple and were happy the lake was finally visible through the snow! Shieghla and Meg were committed to the photoshoot and trudged through quite a bit of mud with us to make it to the boardwalk path that runs along the lake (a place the fires miraculously never touched). So worth the mud!

Congratulations, Meg and Shieghla!

If every wedding this year is even a fraction of how fun Kassie and Josh’s Waterton Lakes Lodge spring wedding was, we are going to have a great year! They had us laughing from when we first arrived at the hotel. The couple have such great relationships with their siblings and kept them as best friends into adulthood. No one in their group takes things too serious. This was especially obvious by how much laughter Kassie had the many times her dress caused a tripping hazard ;)

After a few getting ready photos and their first look, we took the wedding party to the still snowed over Cameron Lake. Everything looked so beautiful with the snow, and no amount of snow was about to get in our way!

Once we headed back into town, Kassie and Josh had their ceremony outdoors on the upstairs patio at the resort, giving guests a beautiful view of the mountains behind the couple. We saved all of the blowing away at the Prince of Wales lookout for the very end. For weddings like this, it makes the wind worth it!

Congratulations, Kassie and Josh!

Nicole and Derek planned for their beautiful day to take place in Waterton, a favourite travel destination for them, with a Bayshore Inn outdoor summer wedding. Their theme of “Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars” was gorgeously put together with star decorations, motifs of constellations, and a blue colour scheme to reflect the dusk sky.

They are both so easy going and able to laugh about things that go wrong. This came in handy with some of the memories they made that day! The mere 30 minutes it rained all fell on their outdoor ceremony, but with enough umbrellas and speedy vows, they didn’t have to compromise and move the wedding indoors. Just when they thought that was enough of a challenge, Nicole angered an entire colony of ants who got trapped in the lacy layers of her dress! She rolled with it and once we teamed up to clear them out, she was happy and ready to go for photos again :)

We spent the day with them and their fun wedding party visiting Red Rock Canyon and Cameron Lake. The free Canadian parks this year meant these beautiful locations were packed with tourists, but we used photography magic the best we could to make it look like Nicole and Derek were sharing private, intimate moments without a hundred eyes watching them!

Congratulations, Nicole and Derek!

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Kevin and Ashley chose an amazing time of year for their autumn Waterton Lakes wedding; the park was nearly empty, beautiful fall colors lined the mountains, and it was still warm enough to get married outside. Even the crazy wind couldn’t spoil their perfect day! With each gust, Ashley cheered like she was on an amusement park ride because she was so happy to be marrying the man of her dreams.

There was so much joy throughout the day, especially at the reception. The speeches were full of laughter and they both had the hugest grins during their first dance. They are so perfect together!

They held both their ceremony and reception Waterton Lakes Lodge with photos taken throughout the town site and at Cameron Lake.

Congratulations, Kevin and Ashley!

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Two mountain weddings in a row, I’m in heaven! :) This one in particular was such a fun Waterton wedding.

I first met Amy when we both took New Media in university, but she was a year ahead of me so I never really got to know her. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, though, we were able to keep in touch later, and I was so excited when she chose me to photograph her wedding! Her and Andrew live very close to Waterton, so they decided that would be the perfect location to have their wedding. They kept it very small and intimate with only their parents, her grandmothers, and their “baby,” Beans the dog, in attendance at the ceremony; after we were done photos, they had a small reception in town for their extended family.

What a perfect wedding! We all met on the main road, then headed towards Red Rock Canyon where we pulled over and did a small hike to a field of wildflowers. From that spot, we were surrounded by mountains and couldn’t even see a peak of any of the roads. It was such a romantic location.

Amy was up for anything for photos, and was luckily able to talk Andrew into the same! We had no trouble keeping up with each other, and I was thrilled by all the things she was willing and wanted to do for photos :)
It’s hard to top a rock climbing, canoe rowing bride!

I was assisted by my buddy Sarah, who luckily happened to be back in town from Kamloops that day. (more…)