Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Ashley and Stefan took a detour while on their way to visit family and made a special stop for Crowsnest winter engagement photos. We lucked out with a fresh snowfall just in time because even the Crowsnest Pass was looking a little brown and dry for this time of year!

The couple were involved with another wedding I’ve photographed, so it was so much fun to get to focus on them this time! They have such great energy and are so cute and snugly together.

We started with the Miner’s Path for a forest look then headed into the wind to get a mountain view. (At this point Stefan pondered why he let his hair grow long, ha ha.)

I can’t wait for their wedding!

Rebecca and Aaron’s original wedding was supposed to be in the mountains, but needing to change their date due to COVID convinced them to get married more locally to Lethbridge. Their engagement photos were a perfect excuse to still get some mountain landscapes in! We decided on Chinook Lake engagement photos in the early summer, which let us beat the vacation crowds at the lake while getting the lush forest look.

This session made me look forward to their wedding even more. They constantly make each other laugh, and they made me laugh a lot too! I love a couple who don’t take themselves too seriously. If the pandemic was a test of how well couples got along with working from home and seeing so much more of each other, Rebecca and Aaron passed with flying colours ;)

I was so excited when Joshua contacted me that he wanted to do a Winter Light Festival proposal for his girlfriend Makayla. Our original plan was for me to creep in the bushes, but once Makayla started dropping hints that she’d love professional photos for Christmas, Joshua and I had a much easier plan to work with!

I met up with them just outside of Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden so we could do the proposal in the lit entrance way and then head inside for the rest of their engagement photos. We almost hit a snag with how super busy the garden was that night. Not only would privacy be impossible, but there was barely room to even pose in the spot we had planned! Somehow, just as it was time, the crowd disappeared and everything went perfectly. According to Makayla, the proposal was not a surprise at all ;)

We had the most perfect night that had snow on the ground, was warm enough, and not at all windy. Makayla and Joshua were constantly congratulated by the other guests, and everyone was so awesome for making sure we had uninterrupted space for photos. They were so much fun and had me laughing all night! Even one of the staff members commented on how much he loved their vibe!

Claudette and Marc had plenty of things to celebrate and combined it all for autumn family and pet photos. The couple were recently engaged so it was a perfect time to update family photos with the boys, as well as get a few cute engagement photos.

They also wanted to celebrate their older dog Stella while she’s still full of energy (the river bottom brought out extra energy). While Stella is in her senior years, little Monte is a brand new addition to the family!

After some cute photos with the dogs, they were put back in the warm vehicle so things could be a little more chill for the human members of the family.

We had to work quickly… after a gorgeous autumn week, Claudette and Marc’s photoshoot was scheduled just one hour before the first big snowfall of the season started! It was MUCH colder than these photos let on! ;)

Rob and Robbi didn’t need a special occasion to update family photos – they were just overdue for one and had a weekend where all of their grandchildren were available! Their son and daughter’s families joined them for Nicholas Sheran Park family photos just as the beautiful fall colours were starting to come out.

Everyone had a great time hanging out behind the scenes when it wasn’t their turn for photos, especially the cousins! There was no shortage of piggy back rides and flipping the younger girls upside down.

Eva and Corney celebrated 20 years of marriage with a Nikka Yuko wedding anniversary photo session. This was their very first visit to Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden with their six children and one of many fun activities they had planned for that weekend.

We got to privately tour the garden on this beautiful summer evening. It was so peaceful and a wonderfully romantic way to celebrate their anniversary.

They get a special shout out for how well they coordinated their outfits into matching pairs while all following the same colour scheme. The family looked so good!