Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Natalie returned to her family’s home area for her Waterton beachside wedding ceremony to Scott. This beautiful area has always been important to her and she wanted to share it with the love of her life!

Every detail of their day had such personal touches. The wedding date took place on their dating anniversary. Natalie’s father performed the ceremony. Only their immediate families were present to keep the wedding intimate. Scott and Natalie put together her bridal bouquet themselves as a pre-wedding project.

Even in the crazy gusts of wind, Natalie and Scott were full of joy. They could barely make it more than a few minutes without bursting into fits of laughter in each other’s company. They have found such perfect partners in each other.

Congratulations, Natalie and Scott!

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For the past few years, I’ve participated in the Lethbridge Scenic Portrait Project as a model and decided to be on the photographer side this year. For the project, photographers, models, and makeup artists are randomly teamed up and tasked with creating a portrait utilizing the landscape of Alberta. The final images from each group are then judged by a team of experts.

My team was made up of the super talented model Sloan MacDonald and Kristen Mrazek for makeup so I knew we could come up with something amazing! The first thing that came to mind when I thought of the landscape in Alberta this year was what has been touched by the wild fires. I wanted to turn Sloan into a Waterton fire goddess and make use of the burned trees there.

Until now I’ve been focusing on the negative effects of the recent fires by using them in my post-apocalypse series, showing that the negative future we are warned about is already happening in small pockets. However, fires can be a natural part of forest regrowth. This was definitely reinforced by all the greenery I had to photograph around and hide from these shots! The ground around the burned trees has already responded so well to the fires and is full of wild flowers. With Sloan in the flowing red dress, I wanted to add beauty to the devastation that has occurred, just as nature will slowly add its own beauty back in.

A huge thank you to Sloan, Kristen, and Cam who dealt with some of the worst wind we have ever experienced in Waterton. (On the plus side, wind and this dress are a match made in heaven!)

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One day when we were driving home from a wedding in Waterton, I finally really noticed the old abandoned gas station on the highway. I have driven past it many times before, but there was something about this trip that made it finally connect in my brain. I’m always on the lookout for new ideas in my post apocalypse series. Seeing the gas station right after the Kenow Wildfires made everything click into place!

It’s a bit of a drive to take a model out there, so I took a chance and asked Cam. He was still sporting his mohawk which would be PERFECT for something like this. Cam hates having his photo taken so I was expecting something like, “Are you crazy?” or a firm no. Imagine my surprise when he agreed!

We patiently waited for the snow in Waterton to melt, and the little that was left behind looks like ashes. Everything worked so well together. The burned trees were a haunting but perfect setting for the atmosphere we wanted. The only props we brought along are the ones Cam is wearing or holding, but the locations provided us with amazing still life, which you will see below (I think the apocalypse must have happened in the 90s).

I had to hold off on sharing this for a while as I used the same forest as part of the Scenic Portrait Project. I’m so happy to finally share!

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It’s amazing to live so close to such a beautiful national park. While most of my wedding clients who get married in Waterton live nearby or at least within Alberta, we have a few each year who make a long journey to take in the beauty of the mountains. Jennifer and Scott travelled all the way from the United States to have their wedding here!

With the threat of rain storms looming overhead, they decided on an indoor Prince of Wales wedding ceremony rather than use the bluff overlooking the lakes. Their ceremony took place in the morning so there were very few tourists in the hotel spying on the event!

Jennifer and Scott had their children stand up with them as their wedding party and only travelled with immediate family, making their beautiful wedding that much more intimate. We had to hold off on family photos because what started as one person in happy tears quickly spread to half of their guests!

We were excited to discover how easy going Scott and Jennifer were. No rain could stop them from getting photos in the beautiful Waterton landscape! They were even willing to brave the rain without the umbrella, which was quickly handed in and out of the photos. Their amazing attitudes let us visit Cameron Falls, the fields full of wild flowers, and the burned trees at the edge of town (almost all in the rain). Despite the cold, they were still full of smiles at each other and lost in each other’s embrace.

Congratulations, Jennifer and Scott!

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Karah and Steve came all the way down to Waterton for their Cameron Falls wedding elopement with their immediate families for a beautiful, intimate ceremony. If their wedding day is any indication, they will have a very lucky marriage! After a week of intense wind leading to a day of thunder storm warnings, we were met with a calm and dry afternoon until just after photos finished.

We were able to go to the Prince of Wales Hotel without blowing away, stop in the wild flower fields, and then take a quick detour out of Waterton to get some amazing views of the mountains away from the wildfire damage.

Their families were so sweet, and completely bursting with excitement the whole day. Karah and Steve have such an amazing support network around them. The couple were so cute together, constantly transitioning from quiet romantic moments to silly faces and poses!

Congratulations, Karah and Steve!

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Kayla and Lucas chose their wedding date because of its historical importance to them. With it being a couple weeks into the official start of spring, they had hoped this would mean a spring wedding. Our weather this year had other plans! We instead spent the day taking snowy Waterton elopement photography.

Waterton has received so much snow this year that there is an entire residential street that is closed due to avalanche warnings. Within the town, you can walk up to the rooftops of many buildings thanks to the drifted snow banks. We were a little limited for locations unless we were to snowshoe, try bouldering the 10 foot banks from the snow plows, or chisel away a new tunnel. Instead, we went for the easy choices of Cameron Falls and the Prince of Wales Hotel (which were still a lot harder to navigate than normal!).

We first met Kayla and Lucas, their baby boy, and their friends at the Waterton Lakes Lodge to get a few indoor photos before faces became flushed from the cold. Once outside, Kayla and Lucas had no trouble snuggling in close to stay warm! Honestly, I think they would have snuggled just as hard had it been warm out, judging by the adoring looks they gave each other all day.

They held their elopement ceremony on the front stone steps of the Waterton Community Center. Their baby was a champ in the cold and made it through all the photos at Cameron Falls as well as half the ceremony before he had had enough! Kayla and Lucas were so lost in their vows that they didn’t know how cold their fingers and toes were getting until after their first kiss.

Congratulations, Kayla and Lucas!

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