Bali Hai Golf Club Wedding

Bali Hai Golf Club sits at 5160 Las Vegas Boulevard South, on the Strip itself, with its entrance on the boulevard right by the Welcome to Las Vegas sign and the Mandalay Bay tower standing over the back of the property. It is the only championship golf course on the Strip. Everything about it is built to look like somewhere else: palm groves, black volcanic rock, seven acres of water and bright white sand where most desert courses have gravel.

I’m McKenzie, and I’ve photographed weddings in Las Vegas since 2009, more than 300 of them. One of those was here. Every photo on this page comes from that one day, so what you are looking at is an honest sample rather than a highlight reel stitched together from years of work.

It was a big, loud, happy wedding. Five bridesmaids in burgundy, groomsmen in grey, two small ring bearers, a ceremony outside on the grass with a floral arch and a unity candle, and then the part everybody remembers, an hour out on the course while the light went orange. Their invitation was printed to look like a newspaper front page. I still think about it.

Why a golf course on the Strip photographs the way it does

Four things decide what your photos look like here, and three of them are plants.

The palms come first. There are around 2,500 of them on the property, part of a planting scheme of roughly 4,000 trees and 100,000 tropical plants, and they are tall, thin and spaced far apart. That combination is unusual and useful. Late in the day the sun comes through the trunks sideways instead of over the top, so I can put you between two palms and get light on your faces with the fronds glowing above you. Half the portraits on this page were made in a strip of palms maybe thirty feet wide.

Then the sand. The out of play areas are finished in white sand rather than the tan gravel you see on most courses in the valley, and white sand is a giant reflector lying on the ground. It bounces light back up under chins and into the shadows of a veil. If you look at the close portraits on this page and wonder why nobody has raccoon eyes at five in the evening, that is the sand doing it, not editing.

Third is the water. Seven acres of it, and the lake in front of the clubhouse goes glassy in the evening and doubles the palms and the green roof. The photo at the top of this page is that lake. It is the one frame that says Bali Hai and nowhere else.

Fourth is the skyline, and this is the part couples do not expect. From most of the course you can see the gold Mandalay Bay and Delano towers and the tip of the Luxor pyramid over the palms. So you can have a tropical photo and a Las Vegas photo from the same spot, ten steps apart, depending on which way I turn you. Couples who want the resorts in frame without shooting on a crowded sidewalk get it here for free. If the sign itself is on your list too, it is right next door.

What I will also say plainly: this is flat, open, manicured ground with very little shade. That is wonderful in the last two hours of daylight and punishing at one in the afternoon. Timing matters here more than at almost any venue I shoot.

What it takes to get married and photographed here

The spaces

Weddings at the course are run by Cili, the club’s restaurant and event side, and its wedding page is where the current ceremony and reception spaces are listed. The shape of it is an outdoor ceremony on the grass beside the water, with palms and the clubhouse in view, and then food and dancing inside or on the patio. The wedding I photographed followed exactly that shape.

Because venues on the Strip do change what they offer, get the specific lawn or room you are picturing confirmed in writing for your date rather than planning around a photo you saw online. The golf club’s own site is the place to start if you want to ask about the course side of things.

Getting out onto the course

This is the question worth asking early, and most couples do not think to ask it at all. The ceremony lawn and the clubhouse are one thing, the course is another, and golf carries on around a wedding. At the wedding I photographed, we had the run of the fairway and the palm groves near the clubhouse in the evening, and that hour produced most of the pictures you are looking at.

So when you tour the property, ask where a photographer may take you, how far out, and whether a cart is available. If a cart is, take it. A bride in a full lace gown covers ground slowly on grass, and every minute you save walking is a minute of good light you keep.

The marriage license

Nevada wants a valid marriage license in your hands before anyone can marry you, and it comes from the Clark County Marriage License Bureau rather than the venue. Bring photo ID, both of you go in person, and there is no waiting period, so a license picked up in the morning works for a ceremony that afternoon. Nevada also asks for one witness at your ceremony, exactly one, and the only rule is that it cannot be your officiant. If nobody is coming with you, I can be your witness. You do not have to solve that. I went through the whole question in this article.

The best time of day for photos at Bali Hai

Sunset is not a nice extra on this property. It is the plan.

Under high sun, an open course is the hardest light there is: people squint, brows throw shadows down over eyes, and the detail in a white dress blows out and never comes back. In the last ninety minutes of daylight the same ground turns into the best set on the south Strip, because the light arrives sideways through the palms and the sand throws it back up. The wedding on this page had its ceremony in bright afternoon sun and its portraits at the end of the day, and you can see both in the gallery.

The complication is that sunset moves. The latest sunsets in Las Vegas land in late June, close to 8 in the evening, and the earliest in early December, around 4:30 in the afternoon. Look up the sunset time for your date and set your ceremony hour from that, not from a round number that sounded good. Working backward from sunset is how I plan every outdoor wedding day, and I will happily do it with you before you sign anything.

Season matters too. June through September is hot and mostly cloudless, and late June into September brings scattered afternoon and evening storms, so an evening ceremony beats an afternoon one and an indoor backup is worth naming in your venue contract. October through April is the easy stretch out here. I wrote more about working with the heat in my guide to a summer wedding in Las Vegas, which uses photos from this very wedding, and about picking a month in the best time of year to get married in Las Vegas. If you are weighing whether to see each other before the ceremony, a first look buys you a lot of daylight on a property like this one.

Let’s talk about your wedding

If Bali Hai is on your list, tell me your date and roughly how many people are coming, and I will tell you honestly what I think about your ceremony time before you lock it in. That one call has saved more photos than any piece of gear I own. You can see what a full day of Las Vegas wedding photography includes on that page, and if you are also looking at the hotel up the road, I have a page for Four Seasons weddings too.

My coverage is booked by the hour, $300 an hour for two hours or more, and there is no travel fee anywhere in Clark County because this is home. I hold dates only for couples whose venue and date are confirmed, so once your contract with the club is signed, send me a message and we’ll find a time to talk.