Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

I’ll be travelling out of Lethbridge for Erin and Jean’s wedding, but for now they came to Lethbridge for their stunning Pavan Park golden hour engagement photos. Erin and Jean wanted a country feel for their engagement photos to match their upcoming wedding, and I love the horse trails in Pavan Park for that vibe. The day they picked was so perfect in the river bottom. The entire park was already full of rich golden tones despite it being so early in autumn.

Erin and Jean have a beautiful quiet calmness with each other. They are both such sweet people, and I can’t wait to spend their wedding day with them!

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!

Emma and Jason planned to have a destination wedding on the coast to be closer to family members, but wanted to start things off by doing photos in the city where they met. I’m glad they did, because they were so much fun to photograph for their golden hour engagement session. We started out in Indian Battle Park (with a few very one-sided tickle fights). The couple then changed into more formal clothes to get a lot less formal with poses! Why do piggyback photos in casual clothes when you can do them in a dress shirt and summer dress?

Congratulations, Emma and Jason!

Amanda and Jason aren’t getting married for a while but wanted a headstart on their invitations and wedding website. We planned for a Lethbridge river bottom engagement session to make use of the space around the high level bridge, then headed to the Galt Museum. They love the look of old brick, and the Galt is one of the best places to find that!

If they hadn’t told me that Jason was new to having professional photos done and that Amanda hadn’t experienced them much more, I never would have known! The two followed directions so well and were able to switch from silly, cute, and cheesy to serious and romantic within moments. I definitely appreciate when couples will follow my instructions to “skip violently”!