Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Michaela and Jason are just the sweetest people so I was not surprised by the amount of happy tears throughout their Galt Museum spring wedding. Michaela started off the day by making everyone cry with their first looks. After her bridesmaids tried not to ruin their fresh makeup, Michaela and her mom met with her dad for an emotional first look in the atrium at the Sandman Signature. Next it was on to Jason seeing her walk down the aisle, but they managed to hold it together a little better and trade the tears for big laughter :)

I’m always amazed at how you can reconnect with people after so many years (which is especially easy in Lethbridge where everyone knows each other!). Back at the beginning of my photography journey, Jason was one of the local musicians I met when I was photographing live shows. I was so excited when after all these years he reached out to me to photograph his wedding to Michaela! And since Lethbridge is like this, Cam was surprised to find he knew one of the groomsmen from high school!

Congratulations, Michaela and Jason!

It wasn’t fair that only one grandparent got to have photos with adorable twins Iker and Enara! Just a few months after our first session, they got to see me again for their twins spring family photos with their grandma and grandpa. It was kind of shocking to see how much more grown up the twins got in that short amount of time!

This time around their parents also joined in plus the twins were a little more accepting of the whole posing business I was asking of them. We ended up with all kinds of cute combinations of family groups plus lots of action shots (because being thrown in the air is SO much fun).

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!

Graduations may still have been smaller in scale for another year in a row, but there’s nothing in the way of still having a fun session to celebrate! Teddy had his Pavan Park spring grad photos with his parents and brother right after all the green came out in the river bottom. Pavan Park was gorgeous that evening. Even the new, loud swarms of bugs left us alone.

This family has such great energy together and made each other laugh through the whole session.

Teddy and his younger brother love mountain biking, so they brought their bikes along to use in the photos. This was the first time either of them had tried biking in formal wear, and it went surprisingly well! The true question is whether that will be the last time they bike in suits. :)

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.

The quarantine meant I couldn’t photograph any real people for a while, so I grabbed all my Barbies when I was by my parents’ place and gave them a try at modelling. One of the biggest challenges was selecting outfits out of the strange collection I had (which totally will inspire a future photoshoot), though I was glad I had a diverse collection of doll types. Oh, there’s also the challenge of how none of the old Barbies had movable joints! I am amazed at some of the poses I balanced them in (plus a good chunk have Cam just out of frame holding feet).

I used this opportunity to play in the spring blossoms and try out a few experimental lighting techniques and multiple exposures. I’m so glad to have finally tried Barbie portraits!

(For behind the scenes videos of some of the more creative shots, you can check out my Instagram story highlights.)