Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Fay and Sinéad had been friends since childhood, but developed a deeper connection as they became adults. Their relationship has remained one of love and continued deep friendship, which was clear in every moment they were glued to each other during the wedding day. Their day celebrated nature and centred around their Helen Schuler Nature Centre rooftop wedding.

Just before the ceremony, they had the sweetest first look in the nature park. Instead of crying, they were so excited! Sinéad could not hide their awe at seeing Fay while Fay excitedly twirled to show off the excellent spin from their dress.

Fay went with a celestial theme for their look, having a star crown and a custom made dress featuring embroidered gold stars and moons. Sinéad embraced sunflowers and had them feature on their shirt, belt, tie, shoes, and floral headpiece. The two love playing DnD and worked their love for that into their details as well! The Round Table was a perfect reception location to reflect their favourite interests.

No queer wedding is complete without a little bit of rainbow, so they worked that into their wedding party colours. Everyone wore variations of green for a nature-centric vibe and had flower crowns, each with a colour of the rainbow. Sinéad’s youngest siblings got to embrace the full rainbow colours in their roles as flower girl and ring bearer.

Congratulations, Sinéad and Fay!

Remember the Scrabble marriage proposal? I had the honour of joining Meg and Shieghla again for their Bayshore Inn early spring wedding. It really is a privilege to follow people through so many important moments like these, especially when they and their families are so kind and wonderful to be around.

We returned to Waterton where they had an outdoor ceremony at the Bayshore Inn, officiated by MLA Shannon Phillips. Their children played a prominent role in the wedding – not just helping with the proposal, but by being in the wedding party! Shieghla and Meg’s sisters made up the rest of the group and led to some very emotional speeches at the reception.

Originally we hadn’t planned to return to the proposal spot at the Prince of Wales, but with most of the shorelines in town being flooded out from the recent rain and snow melt, we made a last minute change and returned to the same spot as before. Just before the reception, we went to Cameron Lake with only the couple and were happy the lake was finally visible through the snow! Shieghla and Meg were committed to the photoshoot and trudged through quite a bit of mud with us to make it to the boardwalk path that runs along the lake (a place the fires miraculously never touched). So worth the mud!

Congratulations, Meg and Shieghla!

Last month I had the privilege of being in my best friend Sarah’s wedding party, which was a strange change after usually being behind the camera at weddings! Sarah is a photographer herself and if you’ve been with me for a long time, you may have seen her second shoot weddings for me in my early years.

Sarah has also modelled for me quite a few times with her horses…

On her wedding day she hired the insanely talented David & Sherry Photography to capture most of the day but asked me to photograph her getting ready at the guest house she operates with her now husband Chris, and I resumed for dance floor candids once David and Sherry left at the end of the evening. Be sure to follow them to see Sarah’s official photos from the day!

Sarah and Chris held their Kamloops rainbow themed wedding at Rainbow Roost, a beautiful farm on the city’s outskirts with a ton of adorable animals. The wedding was distinctly Sarah and Chris with their touches of humour and inclusion of their pets, Forest the dog and Theo the horse. I was honoured to share such a beautiful day with my friend and think they did an amazing job pulling it all together.

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We were off to Edmonton! Darby and Thomas chose the River Cree Resort as their wedding destination and it was a beautiful, perfect location for the day. From the teepees lining the entrance to the field of wildflowers complimenting their colorful flower-child theme, it was like the resort had prepared just for this wedding. They chose a vibrant rainbow color scheme for their wedding party with purple accents for themselves and everything looked so beautiful!

I mentioned before just how gentle and kind they are, and the warmth I felt from them on their wedding day was even stronger. They are such calming, wonderful people and such a pleasure to be around. The entire day was so emotional, from tears to body encompassing laughter. And while Thomas can be very subdued, he really let his personality out all day… I had no idea he had such killer dance moves!

Congratulations, Darby and Thomas! (more…)