Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

This year we had very ambitious goals for Santa Paws! With the opening of The Bone & Biscuit’s second Lethbridge location on Mayor Magrath this year, we decided to do two days of Santa visiting pets. It’s a good thing we had the extra space available because even with doubling the number of appointments we took per hour from last year, we filled every spot and had to turn many pups away!

We saw the return of many familiar faces (and whiskers), some of which added new members to their family, and we made lots of new friends. So many more kitties came to see Santa this year, and everyone was on their best behaviour. Santa got lots of kisses but hardly got de-bearded, and never got knocked over once. We did hit a new record with 4 potty accidents on one day though!

Money was raised for Wag-A-Muffins Animals Rescue and we thank everyone who brought their pets for helping support this rescue.

Emmalyn arrived a few weeks earlier than expected, which was quite a surprise for her mom and dad who were expanding their business at the same time and trying to focus on opening a new location before she arrived. She quickly changed their focus (and added a few long days for her dad). We did the photos on her original due date, so even though she had been hanging around for a couple weeks, she was still newborn tiny and fit perfectly in her parents’ hands.

Her mom had some favourite photo ideas of what she wanted their photoshoot to look like, so we went with a very simple newborn photo session. This meant clean backgrounds and lots of photos that would look great in black and white, and with a focus on Emmalyn.

Emmalyn did throw a bit of a wrench in our plans in that she refused to do any photos where she wasn’t being held! As a result we got so many great photos with her mom and dad holding her. In the end she compromised with us by doing a few by herself as long as she was swaddled.

Claudette and Marc had plenty of things to celebrate and combined it all for autumn family and pet photos. The couple were recently engaged so it was a perfect time to update family photos with the boys, as well as get a few cute engagement photos.

They also wanted to celebrate their older dog Stella while she’s still full of energy (the river bottom brought out extra energy). While Stella is in her senior years, little Monte is a brand new addition to the family!

After some cute photos with the dogs, they were put back in the warm vehicle so things could be a little more chill for the human members of the family.

We had to work quickly… after a gorgeous autumn week, Claudette and Marc’s photoshoot was scheduled just one hour before the first big snowfall of the season started! It was MUCH colder than these photos let on! ;)

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!