Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

The rain stopped just in time for Nick and Alyson’s beautiful wedding at St. Patrick’s church. Because they live in Vancouver, I didn’t actually meet them until the week of their wedding, but instantly took to them and knew I was going to have a great time (and I was right!). This was another crazy fun wedding, and all we did all day was play with the bridal party. With our first stop being a playground, it definitely set the tone for the rest of the day. I managed to sneak serious photos in throughout the day, but it was tempting not to ;)

Later on they had a big party at the Coast Hotel with DJ Thom, and it was another of those rare receptions where the dance floor was always packed. Wonderful!

Thank you to Sarah Underwood for climbing on things and helping out! (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 only became involved in Don and Anna’s wedding one week before it happened, and I’m so glad I was free that day because I had such a fantastic time with them! They had an intimate ceremony at St. Pat’s Church, which was full of endless cute and sweet moments, and despite a forecast calling for rain or snow, we ended up with gorgeous weather for their outdoor photos. They were both natural supermodels and I hardly had to provide any direction at all during the photo session. I spent most of our time together giggling at their antics; I love when people are willing to act silly :) (more…)

Again we are going back to August with this one! Michael Warf invited me along to second shoot Jon and Dana’s wedding in scenic Waterton, and I had such an amazing time! We were with them all day, right through to the party. Together with their bridal party they were a TON of fun – most of them knew each other from film school, and well, I like film school kinds of people :)

In keeping with that theme, Michael arranged a photo shoot in the old movie theatre in Waterton, and it couldn’t have been more perfect for those two.

Plus, these two were sooooo crazy in love. Dana’s gorgeous doe eyes were always oozing with adoration; I know “oozing” isn’t a very romantic word, but I can’t think of anything more descriptive of it!

I had trouble narrowing these down because we did so many things throughout the day, so these might take a little while to load :)

First though, a tale of my brush with nature! When I first arrived in Waterton, I had about an hour before I needed to meet Michael and his assistant Brien, so I grabbed a wrap from Subway and found a bench overlooking the lake. The deer in the area are very conditioned to all the tourists, so they graze quite close to humans throughout the town. As I sat there eating my lunch, a group of three does wandered by me, munching on the grass. Soon one turned around and started walking towards me. “It’s getting awfully close!” I thought, assuming it would stop at a certain point… but NO, before I knew what happened I was holding my wrap away from the deer’s grasp while having my cheek nuzzled! After realizing it would not be able to share any honey mustard goodness, it backed off and went back to finding stray leaves. Unfortunately, all the nearby people were too busy gawking at the sight to take a photo of it! You’ll have to take my word for it… I’m like Snow White!

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I always say how much I love working with people multiple times, and Julie and Chad are no exception. The last time I saw them was when Eric and Chad’s sister Ashley got married, and this time around the couples switched roles. The weather was considerably better than the last time so we were able to spend quite a bit more time playing outside. I had so much fun with all of them, and I loved how open everyone was to anything.

Julie and Chad are so sweet together and made my job totally easy :)

I get one more round with Julie soon when her friend Chelsey (the slightly taller bridesmaid here) gets married, and I’m so excited to work with those girls again.

Oh, and there are a LOT of photos after the cut! The further along this summer goes, the harder a time I am having narrow the photos down for blogs!

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A few years ago I photographed Cassie’s wedding, which I believe was my third I ever did on my own, and I met two great people: Cassie’s brother Brad who I became great friends with, and Cassie’s best friend Stephanie. Well, Stephanie and her man Doug finally decided to tie the knot themselves, and I was so happy to be a part of their wedding as well! They put together a small but beautiful and well thought out Japanese-themed wedding, and had their ceremony and reception at the new Lethbridge Buddhist Temple, the very first wedding ever held there! It was such an honor to be a part of that, and the Temple was so beautiful (especially the shrine).

Stephanie and Doug are also huge car enthusiasts, and Stephanie was especially hoping they could borrow a red Corvette for the wedding day. The plans for it fell through so they settled for a white Yukon, but when Doug went to the dealership to pick it up, they happened to have a red Corvette sitting in the lot! He decided to surprise Steph with it, and even as they came out of the Temple and saw it, she still didn’t know it was theirs to use. He even strung her along a little when she saw it, saying he didn’t know who it belonged to, then suggested they steal it ;)

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