Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Marisa and Tara got engaged while on a mountain climb (while Marisa was injured, no less!) and make frequent trips to go explore the mountains with their three dogs. They combined their love of outdoor adventures with Tara’s hometown to have an intimate mountain themed wedding. The couple wanted to do Star Creek Falls wedding photos prior to their ceremony, so we met up with them in Coleman for a mini hiking adventure.

Tara has tons of experience walking out onto ice rinks in heels after hockey games, so a little hike to Star Creek Falls with Marisa was pretty easy in comparison. Yes, she wore her heels the whole way, even over logs and wet rocks! We were thrilled that they were up for going all the way to the base of Star Creek Falls, which is incredible for photos.

After portraits, we journeyed to the other end of the Crowsnest Pass. Their ceremony was held outdoors at Tara’s parents’ place where we were joined by their friends and family. This was such a fun event! There were so many happy tears during their personal vows, and once the reception started, everyone there could not stop smiling. Tara and Marisa have such an amazing relationship, and everyone near to them shares in that joy.

Congratulations, Tara & Marisa!

Nicole and Cody had such a vivid fall family session with how amazing the colours were last autumn! Their photography session in Indian Battle Park allowed us to escape the wind and make use of the golden tones in the river bottom.

I had already photographed Nicole and her daughter on the fun mothers-daughters New York trip we went on, but this time the guys (including dog Coco) got to be included. I’m not sure they were as excited about it, but they did good for following Mom’s wishes for family photos!

Coco and the kids climbed whatever they could and were super excited to be out on our photo adventure. Nicole was happy to learn how easily I caught all the moments between the chaos ;)

Ligia is an amazing mom to these three boys! She tries to regularly update their mom and sons photos as the boys grow older. This year was an especially great snapshot of growing up as her middle son is in the missing front teeth phase of childhood!

We met up for photos at Nicholas Sheran Park at the end of summer. The boys had so much fun with each other and their adorable chihuahua!

I’m so grateful for families who take me along on the journey as their family grows. It’s been amazing watching Lindsay and Terry go from their engagement to welcoming Jaxson home. Aside from some perfectly normal fatigue from him keeping them up all night, the two of them are so completely in love with their baby. I got to meet him for his Lethbridge newborn photography session, which must have been a pretty exciting day for him seeing as how he didn’t sleep at all through the session! Any sleeping photos are completely fake moments where he relaxed and rested his eyes for a moment ;)

The spring blossoms in Lethbridge in 2020 were amazing, and I think we may have had the nicest May long weekend ever! Piper’s family took advantage of this perfect spring and their extra time together during quarantine for a spring blossom mini session. We found tons of beautiful pink flowers only a block from their house. They walked over with their dog Poppy for their cute family session.

Amanda and Zach didn’t want any ordinary photos! I met Amanda years ago when I did her grad photos. She reached out again to have me photograph her with the love of her life (Zach) as well as the other love of her life (Cosmo). She came prepared with a list of ideas for their fun West Lethbridge couples photos. In the end, we created an unconventional couples session filled with favourite activities and inside jokes.

One element that made the session even more over the top was that it had just snowed and was freezing out, so they probably turned a few heads when people saw them playing board games outside in the winter weather.

As another cute touch, they brought along the shirts they each wore on their first date!

We laughed through the entire session (even during the more traditional poses) and had so much fun despite the temperature.