Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Ella and Mike held an intimate Waterton cottage end of season wedding celebration for their friends and family. Their friend generously offered her cottage for the ceremony. When the rain showers that day decided to arrive around ceremony time, everyone squished into the home to watch the couple say their vows. For the rest of the day we had wonderful weather and it stopped raining every time we went outside for photos! We had to take the umbrella photo they wanted in the sun. ;)

Ella and I have crossed paths many times over my years in Lethbridge because of our mutual interest in dance (she was the second dance teacher I ever had!). It’s amazing to see her so at home with Mike. In Mike she has found a shared love of nature and animals. Mike rescues and rehabilitates bears for a living. All day he expressed how amazed he is to have found a woman who loves bears as much as he does!

Their love and kindness towards animals is obvious in their interactions with Ella’s “baby” Coco. Coco goes on every nature adventure with them and can keep up on 30km hikes even with her tiny legs! She was an important part of the wedding day and had her own little white dress to match her mom.

Congratulations, Ella and Mike!

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A few years ago I came up with an idea to do some dreamy floral light painting photography at the Henderson Lake rose garden in Lethbridge. Some years the roses didn’t bloom all too well, while other years I never had enough free evenings. This year after seeing how gorgeous the roses were, I made it happen! I’ve worked with Tuezday as a model in the past, and her gorgeous daughter Rain has recently started modelling as well. I was eager to get Rain in front of my camera and had to get them together for this! Rain is already a natural at modelling and did fantastic holding long poses. These photos were done well after dark, requiring a flash light to focus and then using light painting to create this dreamy, fantasy effect.

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Cassandra has been dying her hair a variety of colours for the past few months and I’ve been so eager to get some photos of it! For Pride Month she got a full on rainbow added to her hair and we went out in search of the most colourful backgrounds we could find in Lethbridge for her rainbow themed pinup portraits. In addition to the usual bright murals that are downtown year round, Lethbridge Pridefest added even more variety for us as many businesses had rainbow themed front window displays!

Once it started getting a little too dark outside, we made our own bright colours indoors with gelled flashes. Cassandra came equipped with her big rainbow umbrella from Drunken Sailor and I brought my giant bag of bellydance veils for us to use as props.

This amazing hair colour and styling were both provided by Catwalk Salon.

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Nicole and Derek planned for their beautiful day to take place in Waterton, a favourite travel destination for them, with a Bayshore Inn outdoor summer wedding. Their theme of “Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars” was gorgeously put together with star decorations, motifs of constellations, and a blue colour scheme to reflect the dusk sky.

They are both so easy going and able to laugh about things that go wrong. This came in handy with some of the memories they made that day! The mere 30 minutes it rained all fell on their outdoor ceremony, but with enough umbrellas and speedy vows, they didn’t have to compromise and move the wedding indoors. Just when they thought that was enough of a challenge, Nicole angered an entire colony of ants who got trapped in the lacy layers of her dress! She rolled with it and once we teamed up to clear them out, she was happy and ready to go for photos again :)

We spent the day with them and their fun wedding party visiting Red Rock Canyon and Cameron Lake. The free Canadian parks this year meant these beautiful locations were packed with tourists, but we used photography magic the best we could to make it look like Nicole and Derek were sharing private, intimate moments without a hundred eyes watching them!

Congratulations, Nicole and Derek!

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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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Desirée and Craig wanted to reflect their love for the live music scene by hosting a Crowsnest Pass night time wedding at The Greenhill Hotel in Blairmore. With Craig being a musician, their concert-themed wedding was perfect! In addition to closing out the evening with an open jam stage with their friends, their decorations were accented with records and musical notes.

I noticed back at their engagement session that they have such huge emotions around each other and the wedding day was no exception. Craig was so overwhelmed during the ceremony while Des acted as his rock, wiping away his tears. They later had this hilarious exchange…

Des: Are you okay to drive?
Craig: I haven’t been drinking…
Des: I mean emotionally!

One special touch in their wedding was how much they included Desirée’s son. Not only was he their ring bearer, but he joined them in a hug after the first kiss and had a special marriage certificate to take part in the signing of.

Congratulations, Desirée and Craig!

p.s. Special thanks to Nate at Rydography for filling in for Cam as second shooter / assistant!

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