Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Haley and Ryan were met with a ton of challenges in planning their wedding. After a year long postponement due to COVID and having to change their outdoor venue from a local park to a private farm wedding ceremony, their wedding day brought a new challenge of rain! If rain on the wedding day is a sign of good luck, it seems even more fortunate that it would stop just as their ceremony began. Their location hosts did an amazing job running around drying off seats and it didn’t take long into the vows for their guests to be able to put their umbrellas away.

This year has been so fantastic for very personal wedding officiants. Ryan’s cousin performed their ceremony, which made it so much more special. Family played a vital role throughout the day as they also had all of their siblings and a number of cousins in their wedding party.

Portraits were done at Pavan Park where the group really got started partying, followed by their reception that night at the Italian Canadian Club. Everyone there was so happy and excited to celebrate the couple; as soon as the dance floor opened, it was packed!

Congratulations, Haley and Ryan!

Frank and Joanne got their three children and their families together for Picture Butte extended family photos at their farm house. Each set of little kids was so excited to spend a morning playing with their cousins. When it wasn’t their turn for photos, they could be found running around with each other.

The family farm was such a meaningful location to do their photos. In addition to growing up there, most of the family lives very close by so they have a lot of special memories at the farm. Frank and Joanne are so proud of the life they have built for their family and it really showed in their interactions with their grandchildren.

Tori and Dustin were our first wedding rescheduled from 2020 so it felt so good for this to finally happen! They even had special signs made celebrating the fact that they waited so long that extra partying was required. Their day started with a Purple Springs country wedding ceremony on a family farm. The property had a beautiful long lawn lined with trees that was a perfect spot.

All the anticipation of the past year was finally let go. Their ceremony was full of so much laughter from everyone involved… and a few blunders at the ceremony definitely helped contribute to that ;)

After their ceremony, we drove out to the Grand Forks where they had gotten access to a beautiful private property along the river. The space had so much character with a giant tree house, old wheels, and lots of greenery.

Congratulations, Tori and Dustin!

What a year 2020 was! By the time March rolled around, we weren’t sure if we were still going to be able to call ourselves “wedding photographers” this year, or if COVID was going to cancel weddings and events completely. Quite a few of our couples decided to postpone their weddings until 2021, but the rest decided to shake up their plans and go for it!

We saw a little less travelling this year, but still managed to visit Waterton many times and went as far as the Pioneers Cabin in Edmonton. Many of the weddings were made more personal by cancelling venue reservations and moving the festivities to family’s and friend’s farms and ranches, where we found some stunning views of the Alberta landscape.

With 2020 being such an oddball, it was totally fitting that it was also a leap year! We started out the year with James and Kaylene’s leap year / 1920s themed wedding before we had any idea of what was to come.

Halloween is by far my favourite holiday, so you can imagine my excitement when Jessica and Dustin contacted me while planning their Halloween sunset wedding. Jessica adores Halloween and she was not about to let the rare Saturday it fell on go to waste!

They wanted their ceremony to take place outdoors to incorporate the setting sun and chose a friend’s farm just outside of Orton. We got lucky with a gorgeous Halloween evening, and the farm had such great curvy trees to go with the theme.

Jessica wore a beautiful black wedding dress with lace accents and a black veil, and had a friend build them a coffin for a very dramatic bridal entrance. This is definitely the first wedding coffin I’ve photographed!

Congratulations, Jessica and Dustin!

Something beautiful has been happening out of the challenge of adjusting weddings to fit into an ever-changing set of rules this year. We are seeing weddings become so much more meaningful and often tying in the couple’s roots. Nicole and Brayden had to transform their big Lethbridge wedding into a more intimate Skiff backyard wedding when their original venue could no longer accommodate their event. Instead of the usual go to spots in Lethbridge, Nicole’s family’s farm was an incredibly personal and beautiful backdrop for their ceremony and portraits.

Everything about their day was so perfect. Their outdoor ceremony took place with a chorus of birds singing in the trees behind them. The gorgeous yellow fields had just flowered and were easily within walking distance. The hamlet of Skiff was only a couple minutes away where we could make use of the old grain elevator and train cars, perfect for Nicole and Brayden’s love of trains!

There was so much love throughout the day and everyone in the family played a part in making the day run smoothly. Their wedding party, entirely made up of their siblings, doted on them all day and helped them pack whatever they needed. They were also great for encouraging kissing when Nicole and Brayden didn’t quite hear what I asked. ;) Nicole and Brayden are so sweet and their wedding was such a perfect way to start their lives together.

Congratulations, Nicole & Brayden!