Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Michaela and Jason are just the sweetest people so I was not surprised by the amount of happy tears throughout their Galt Museum spring wedding. Michaela started off the day by making everyone cry with their first looks. After her bridesmaids tried not to ruin their fresh makeup, Michaela and her mom met with her dad for an emotional first look in the atrium at the Sandman Signature. Next it was on to Jason seeing her walk down the aisle, but they managed to hold it together a little better and trade the tears for big laughter :)

I’m always amazed at how you can reconnect with people after so many years (which is especially easy in Lethbridge where everyone knows each other!). Back at the beginning of my photography journey, Jason was one of the local musicians I met when I was photographing live shows. I was so excited when after all these years he reached out to me to photograph his wedding to Michaela! And since Lethbridge is like this, Cam was surprised to find he knew one of the groomsmen from high school!

Congratulations, Michaela and Jason!

Mackenzie was my earliest grad last year for her springtime graduation photos. Everything had only just bloomed in the river bottom so her photos were perfectly timed for spring. She was celebrating her high school convocation here in Lethbridge and her family captured the event with a photoshoot.

From far away, Mackenzie’s dress looked like a shimmery pink. Up close it had the most beautiful and intricate bead work designs, sheer panels as a base to some of the patterns, and the best part of all, pockets! (Brides are at an advantage that they get bouquets to hold for photos, but Mackenzie had the perfect spot to rest her hands.)

Mackenzie was wonderful to work with and up for anything… she had no qualms about climbing over logs or running in her dress!

It wasn’t fair that only one grandparent got to have photos with adorable twins Iker and Enara! Just a few months after our first session, they got to see me again for their twins spring family photos with their grandma and grandpa. It was kind of shocking to see how much more grown up the twins got in that short amount of time!

This time around their parents also joined in plus the twins were a little more accepting of the whole posing business I was asking of them. We ended up with all kinds of cute combinations of family groups plus lots of action shots (because being thrown in the air is SO much fun).

Emily and Ben started our wedding season with their Galt Museum early spring wedding. Despite the leaves not being out yet, it was practically a summer day for their wedding! They decided to have a first look to start off photos, which resulted in lots of tight embraces, huge smiles, and some happy tears.

It made the day so laid back to start with photos. We got to take our time making our way to the Galt Museum, and even after family photos we had enough time for a few more portraits. Their ceremony in the Galt viewing gallery overlooked the coulees and I’m pretty impressed they managed to keep it together during their personal vows (the tears were close!).

Right after the ceremony they took their wedding party outside for a parking lot celebration.

Congratulations, Emily & Benjamin!

Shannon and George celebrated their 50th anniversary with their children and took some time for casual autumn family photos. It was especially a big deal for their granddaughter Ainsley since her family doesn’t live in Lethbridge and seeing her grandparents is a special occasion! Her energy level kept everyone going through photos, and at the end the adults were glad to sit down when she hit the playground :)

I’ve known Elizabeth and Brian’s family for many years, but back then it was much smaller! Now that it has grown in size it was time for an update with river bottom multi-generation fall photos. They were cutely colour-coordinated with golden hues contrasting with soft blue, which really popped amongst all the yellow colours in Indian Battle park.

Their family is always so fun to be around and posing for photos was no exception. Even Tali had a blast through the whole session playing with her cousins and grandparents… normally kids her age are done right away!