Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

I really looked forward to seeing how Brittany and Sam would combine their cultural backgrounds for their Calgary Chinatown spring wedding. The beautiful event did not disappoint! They held their ceremony at the Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre downtown under the gorgeous domed ceiling.

The area along the river had no shortage of beautiful spots so we didn’t have to go very far for photos as we made our way to their reception at the Regency Palace Restaurant. They could not have asked for a nicer day, especially with all the blossoms still being out.

Brittany and Sam had such a romantic and timeless look to their wedding day style. Sam rocked his James Bond style tux and Brittany was stunning in her floral detail wedding gown (the first of three dresses she wore that day!). Their personalities are so in sync with each other and I loved watching how romantic they are together.

Congratulations, Brittany and Sam!

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We met up with Janelle and Gerald for their Fort Macleod spring wedding photos just after their ceremony and luncheon in the town. We managed to squeeze in all the family photos just before it suddenly started raining! Janelle had totally planned ahead and picked out a fantastic hangar for indoor photos so we could stay dry.

Once the rain finally lifted, we headed back outside to get photos with the amazing vintage car they had for the wedding day. It took a little longer to drive from one point to another and Gerald had to carefully drive around bumps in the road, but it was *definitely* worth it to have such a sweet ride.

Janelle and Gerald kept their wedding intimate by not officially having a wedding party, but brought some of their closest friends along for photos. This gave us a little more time than normal to focus on the couple and how sweet they are together. I loved how classy they looked with how perfectly tailored the dress and suit were, especially next to the vintage car. Everything about the day was so romantic.

Congratulations, Janelle and Gerald!

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It was the perfect combination. I was itching to take a fresh set of pink spring blossom portraits once the flowers came out in Lethbridge. Katie was high up on my list of models I wanted to work with. A friend donated this beautiful summery white dress to my photo collection. The day the flowers suddenly bloomed had no rain and even no wind. How much more perfect could it be?

Katie was fantastic to work with. She understood how crazy I get with these flowers and didn’t question why she needed to stand in a ladder in a tree. :)

The creative pink make-up was done by the talented Erin Kinney, who also did the fishtail braid Katie wore for the first half of our shoot.

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I’m so excited to see Ross and Erin’s family growing! After knowing them for many years and photographing their wedding, I’ve come to know them as super sweet people with great senses of humour and know they will make amazing parents.

They brought along their adorable dog Lazer for their late spring maternity photos at Aperture Park at the University of Lethbridge and I can already tell he’s going to make a great big brother ;) It was such a beautiful evening for photos and almost felt like summer.

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For Amanda’s birthday, she treated herself to a mom and the girls photoshoot with her daughters Mia and Nova. These three blonde girls are so gorgeous!

It was so fun to photograph Mia again since I haven’t seen her since her newborn photos and now she’s a feisty two year old! Aperture Park at the University of Lethbridge was such a fun location for Nova who loved looking at the deer and picking dandelions. We all had to team up to chase her around (including Mia’s friends she brought along), but Nova definitely insisted on doing her own thing. Luckily we were able to trick her into a bunch of photos by playing off what she thought she was choosing to do on her own ;)

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I’ve worked with Carly many times for photography, but that was all for her job… this time her and her family got to be in front of my camera! She celebrated Mother’s Day with spring morning family photos with her boys at Aperture Park at the University of Lethbridge. However, her littlest guy didn’t get the memo that it was Mother’s Day and wasn’t fully cooperative after a while! Our photos slowly evolved more and more into playing with sticks and swinging him in the air to get him excited again ;)

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