Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

A and Kknew they wanted their wedding ceremony somewhere beautiful outdoors while still making everything easy for their small guest list. A rooftop garden was the perfect solution! They decided on a Helen Schuler wedding elopement. Only their limited guests, mostly made up of their parents and children, knew the big secret… until A posted the news on Facebook to invite everyone to their reception at the Owl Acoustic Lounge later that night!

After their emotional rooftop wedding, they headed downtown for photos of just the two of them. Their vintage Chevy owning friend met us by Drunken Sailor, a very special place to A who used to work there. It’s also where she bought her wedding dress! We had a bit of a scare when the truck wouldn’t start but it pulled through just in time for us to use it in the nearby alley.

Congratulations, A and K!

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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After a blast of both cold and wind, we were worried about what would be left for the Helen Schuler autumn family photos with Madison and her parents. We were so happy to be met with beautiful, rich colours in the river bottom! Indian Battle Park looked stunning during golden hour and we found every pretty spot where the leaves had held on. Madison is such a sweet girl and was excellent at posing, whether we wanted her to be serious and thoughtful, or giggly and showing off her cute smile for mom and dad!

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Each fall, Mishaela and her sister have their photos taken together for their parents to display in their home. This year marked a break in that tradition while Mishaela was away for school, but she couldn’t let her mother’s wall go empty! She surprised her parents for Christmas with beautiful Lethbridge autumn portraits of herself. I can’t believe the day we chose – Mishaela got the absolute best of the fall colors two days before the snow and wind knocked them all down!

To celebrate her time away at school, Mishaela incorporated props from her education into a few of the photos. Once in a while her stethoscope, textbooks, or flute would make an appearance. She chose just the right number of textbooks to be the perfect height to lean onto! Mishaela has such a positive, upbeat personality and was so much fun to work with.

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Kelti and Matthew held their Gem of the West wedding ceremony on the cusp of autumn with the most important people in their lives in attendance. Kelti is heavily involved in the community so choosing a venue with so much historic value was such a perfect fit.

Kelti, Matthew, and all of their wedding party got ready at the Charles Street Suites, which is conveniently decorated in their wedding colours! They kept to separate floors so that they could share a first look on the staircase before heading out for photos.

Kelti and Matthew both give off so much positive energy and had us laughing all day. It was clear to see why they are so amazing together while watching them interact; they bounce that energy off each other nonstop and hardly ever quit smiling. They, their siblings, and their wedding party were constantly hilarious and never took anything too seriously – even when tackle chases gave way to ripped pants early in the day.

Congratulations, Kelti and Matthew!

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It was great to catch up with Charleen and Chris again for their Lethbridge river bottom anniversary portraits. I love so much that they keep up this tradition of updating their photos every few years for their anniversary, and keeping it close to their wedding date makes it so great for reflecting on how their relationship has grown. Even though they’ve been together a while, they are still giggly like newly weds and have no awkwardness about cuddling and being close to each other.

We spent a beautiful evening exploring behind the Helen Schuler Nature Centre for their anniversary session. The fall colours have been so amazing this year and I loved the colours Charleen and Chris chose to wear to go with it. It’s especially impressive when they put their wardrobes together at the last minute between having colds and being busy with work! ;)

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