Lake Las Vegas Wedding

Lake Las Vegas is a 320 acre lake built into the desert on the east side of Henderson, held back by an earthen dam across the Las Vegas Wash and filled with water piped from Lake Mead. The community around it went up in the 1990s. What that leaves you with today is a Mediterranean village on the north shore, a replica of Florence’s Ponte Vecchio crossing the water, a marina full of boats, and resorts on both sides. It sits about 17 miles east of the Strip, roughly half an hour of driving, and it looks nothing like the rest of Las Vegas.

I’m McKenzie, and I’ve photographed weddings in this valley since 2009, more than 300 of them. Three of those weddings happened out at the lake, and every photo on this page comes from one of those three days.

They went nothing alike, which is the useful part. One couple was married in the resort’s formal garden, in a ring of white chairs around a stone fire feature, with bridesmaids in burgundy and a standing wall of red and white flowers at the top of the aisle. Another said their vows on a lawn at the water’s edge with the bridge in the frame behind them, then walked into the village and borrowed a pink cruiser bike for portraits. The third had a lawn ceremony against the arched windows of the resort, then spent the last of the light with me out on the boat dock. Same lake, three completely different days.

Why the water changes your photos

The lake does something for your pictures that no other venue this close to town can do, and it is not the view. It is the bounce. A big flat sheet of water throws light back up at your faces in the late afternoon, so the hour before sunset out here is soft in a way the open desert never is at the same hour. In most of the valley I spend a chunk of the day hunting for shade. At the lake the water and the buildings hand me most of it.

The second thing is that you get several unrelated backdrops inside one short walk. A cypress garden with clipped boxwood and a fire feature at its center. A long covered arcade with iron lanterns hanging between the arches, which is shaded and even all day and is where a lot of the portraits on this page came from. Cobblestone village streets with shopfronts and awnings. Then the shore path, and then the dock, with the boats moored on both sides and the bridge across the water behind you. All of it is a few minutes apart on foot, which means a portrait block here does not need cars.

The third is the architecture itself. Ochre and cream stucco, red tile roofs, arched windows, tall Italian cypress. It photographs warm, and it does not read as Las Vegas at all. For couples whose family will look at these photos for the next forty years and would rather not see a casino in the background, that matters more than anything I can say about lenses.

There is a tradeoff and I would rather you hear it from me. What you do not get out here is the Strip. No neon, no fountains, no skyline. If a couple of frames of the real Las Vegas matter to you, that is a separate trip on a separate day, and the honest place to put it is your engagement session. Tell me what you’re picturing and we can sort out where each piece goes.

What it takes to get married and photographed at the lake

The venues

Most weddings on the lake run through the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa at 1610 Lake Las Vegas Parkway, which is the big Mediterranean building above the village. It has been through three names: it opened in 2003 as a Ritz Carlton, reopened as the Ravella in 2011 and became a Hilton in 2013. If you go looking for older photos of the property you will find them filed under all three, and it is the same building.

Its outdoor ceremony space is the Florentine Gardens, a formal garden courtyard with a rustic garden fireplace at its center and greenery arches you can be married under. That is the space in the overhead photos near the top of this gallery, and it is where the burgundy and navy wedding on this page happened. Indoors, the resort has a chapel built out over the water, La Capella di Amore, with dark wooden pews and marble floors, plus a ballroom for receptions. What any of it costs is the resort’s to quote and not mine to repeat, so ask their events team directly.

Ceremonies also happen on the lawns at the water’s edge, which is where the third wedding on this page took place, and the village itself hosts events. The practical question to ask whoever you book with is which patch of grass is actually yours for the hour, because on a lake this size the answer decides what ends up behind you.

Photography in the village

This is the one piece of paperwork specific to the lake. The village is private property with public access, and Lake Las Vegas publishes a photography policy saying that posed photography by anyone working as a photographer for pay has to be approved by village management ahead of the shoot. In the version posted in 2021 the fee was a flat $50 for a session of up to about two hours. Fees move, so treat that as a ballpark and check the current policy or the village contact page for your date. This is on my list, not yours, and none of it applies to your guests with their phones.

If your ceremony and reception are entirely inside a resort, the resort covers you. It is the walk into the village for portraits, the bike, the shopfronts, the cobblestones, that falls under the village policy.

Parking, walking, and the drive

You park once and the rest of the day happens on foot. The garden, the arcade, the village streets, the shore path and the docks are all within a few minutes’ walk of each other, which is why a Lake Las Vegas timeline needs less travel time than almost any other venue in the valley.

The drive is the part to plan for. Seventeen miles east of the Strip is a real drive for guests, and there is nothing much between the freeway and the lake, so anyone who is late stays late. If most of your guests are staying on the Strip, build a cushion into the ceremony start and tell people the number in the invitation.

Heat, wind, and season

Summer at the lake is still summer in southern Nevada, and the water does not cool the air the way people expect it to. An afternoon ceremony in July on an open lawn is hard on guests in suits. The gardens hold shade better than the lawns do because of the cypress and the buildings around them, and either way the fans, the water station and a shorter ceremony are worth planning for. The photos on this page from a July wedding were taken almost entirely in shade or after 6pm, on purpose.

The other thing the lake gives you that the rest of the valley does not is wind off the water in the late afternoon. It is usually a gift, because it moves a veil and a train beautifully. It is occasionally a problem for lightweight decor and for anything printed. Weight your programs.

The best time of day for photos out here

Sunset is the whole plan. In late June the sun goes down close to 8pm and in early December it is gone by about 4:30pm, which means the same ceremony time lands very differently depending on the month you book. What stays constant is the shape: I want the ceremony done about 90 minutes before sunset, family photos knocked out immediately after while everyone is still in one place, and then the two of you free for the last half hour of light.

That last half hour is what the dock and the shore path are for. The water picks up the color of the sky, the village lights start coming on across the lake, and the bridge sits behind you. Every photo on this page from the dock was made in that window.

Earlier in the day, the arcade is the answer. It is covered, the light is even, and it stays that way from mid morning to late afternoon, so it works for a first look at 2pm in June when nothing outdoors does. If your ceremony is early or your reception runs straight through sunset, the arcade is the place I will steal you away to.

For a look at the same lake without wedding clothes, the engagement sessions I’ve shot out there are on their own page: Lake Las Vegas engagement photos. If Henderson is where you’re looking generally, there’s also Green Valley Ranch on the other side of the city, and the rest of the valley is on the locations page.

Talking about your day

If you’re looking at Lake Las Vegas, you already know what you want your photos to feel like. My work is light and airy, I shoot the day as it actually happens, and when you book me you get me, at every hour of your wedding. You can see how I cover a full day on the weddings page.

Once your venue and date are confirmed, send me a note and tell me which part of the lake you’re getting married on. I’ll tell you what the light will be doing that month and what a timeline out there really looks like.