Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Dan and Sheila were gifted a portrait session for Christmas and waited until we had gorgeous weather and their granddaughters were visiting. Wanting something a little off the beaten path for the city, we decided on Lethbridge Research Centre family photos. The centre’s Fairfield Gardens are one of my favourite and most under-utilized locations here so I was thrilled when Dan was the one to suggest it!

The family made their session so much fun by constantly goofing around together, teasing each other behind the camera, and not being afraid to roll around with Aspen the dog on the ground. Aspen was quite the show stealer with his energetic antics and the team work from the family that it took to have him hold still for only a few photos at a time.

Unfortunately Aspen unexpectedly fell ill not long after this photo session so this post is in his memory. I’m so thankful we were able to get these amazing moments of him with his family.

The threat of rain wouldn’t stop Shaylee and Dennis from having their Fairfield Garden wedding at the Lethbridge Research Centre! Ready with a bucket full of umbrellas for their guests, they were prepared to get married outside, rain or shine. Lethbridge cooperated by giving us some lazy clouds that didn’t feel like raining on their day!

From our very first meeting, Dennis and Shaylee’s outgoing, bubbly personalities were obvious. Shaylee beamed with pride that she had been the one to propose and they spoke with so much joy of how they were including their daughters in the wedding day. It was no surprise then that their wedding day was explosive with happy emotions. So many people were crying during the ceremony that it took everything in me not to join them! Shaylee and Dennis alternated wiping away each other’s tears while the sounds of sniffles resonated from their guests.

Once the ceremony was out of the way, the happy crying turned into side splitting laughter. We could barely keep up with taking candids of all the joking around and laughing between them and their wedding party. Eventually we sent everyone away for a break before the reception and focused on some quiet romantic time with the bride and groom.

Congratulations, Shaylee & Dennis!

I decided I was due for a sample album update this year and chose to create a Lethbridge Research Centre wedding album out of Krysty and Kole’s wedding last September. Their wedding was a perfect fit to show potential clients as it starts with both of them getting ready at the Lethbridge Coast Hotel in the morning and has all parts of the day until their sparkler exit at night.

The full page spreads of the Modern+ Album were perfect for showing off large images of their ceremony at the Lethbridge Research Centre, full wedding party against the coulees, and sunset photos at Henderson Lake just before dinner.

Choosing the spine colour was a tough choice as their wedding had a few gray tones, but the natural colours on the cusp of autumn would look amazing in a brown. In the end I chose the dark brown leather spine and chocolate album bag to accent their photos. Thanks to the popularity of this album style and its really fast turnaround time, this year forward I’ll only be offering this style for weddings. If you’ve seen the other styles and still prefer those, they are still available by special request!

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After Krysty styled her engagement session so beautifully, I was excited to see what she had in store for her wedding day! Her and Kole carefully planned out each beautiful detail of the day, from their lemonade stand to keep their guests refreshed at the ceremony to their 200 sparkler exit at the end of the evening. Continuing with the cycling theme, they featured gold-painted bicycle wheels as decorations, Kole wore cufflinks shaped like bikes, and they rented a tandem bicycle for their wedding photos.

Their Lethbridge Research Centre outdoor wedding ceremony could not have taken place on a nicer day! They had warm sunshine and no wind, while just a hint of the autumn colours were starting to appear. Their ceremony was so emotional with each of them fighting back tears through their huge grins.

Krysty’s attention to detail gave us so much creativity during portraits (they also rented a super cool large vintage couch!) and their wedding party made the day so much fun. We even took a detour to visit the Love and Records music festival. Kole and Krysty were just as photogenic as at their engagement session so they made our job pretty easy ;)

By reception time, everyone was ready to party. The dance floor was never empty and grandma danced more than anyone else there! Krysty and Kole totally nailed their first dance choreography after their many dance lessons… even though it was Krysty’s first time ever doing it in the wedding dress.

Congratulations, Krysty and Kole!

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Mandy and Chris had an intimate Southminster United Church chapel wedding in the evening. They included so many unique touches in their ceremony. In place of a sand ceremony, they poured their favorite gummy candies together with their boys, and at the end served their guests champagne in custom flutes with a toast to their friends and family.

After the ceremony, we went out for photos with them and their boys. The boys had so much fun exploring the coulees that their clean suits didn’t stay that way for very long! All it did was add to the realism of what daily life is like ;)

Despite the smokey air, Mandy and Chris were in amazing spirits and so elated to be in each other’s company. Mandy was constantly bursting into happy laughter whenever Chris held or kissed her!

Congratulations, Mandy and Chris!

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I know it’s early in the year, but I think Kim and Nathaniel may be one of my most passionate couples this wedding season. The way they looked at each other and snuck kisses even when the camera was down was so romantic!

We started out the day greeting them as they arrived at the NRC church in Lethbridge and followed Kim as she walked down the aisle to her soon to be husband. For photo locations we focused on Lethbridge Research Centre wedding portraits, which was stunningly green this time of year, followed by a quick visit to Henderson Lake and the old red firehall downtown.

Kim and Nathaniel were surrounded by so much happiness and laughter throughout the day. From Nathaniel’s friends’ dry humor to Kim’s sisters’ theatrics, we rarely stopped laughing!

Congratulations, Kim and Nathaniel!

p.s. Thank you to Melanie from Photo Expressions for being my second shooter for the day!

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