Stallion Mountain Wedding Photos

Stallion Mountain by Wedgewood Weddings is a wedding venue built into the clubhouse of Stallion Mountain Golf Club, at 5500 E Flamingo Road in the east valley. It is about seven miles from the Strip, it seats up to 250 guests, and it has three ceremony sites and two reception rooms, all of them within a short walk of each other.

I’m McKenzie. I’ve photographed weddings in Las Vegas every year since 2010, more than 300 of them, and several of those days happened out here. Every photo on this page was made at Stallion Mountain, across different weddings in different seasons, so what you are looking at is the venue itself rather than one couple’s best day. Burgundy and gold in the ballroom, dusty blue under string lights, a blush ceremony at dusk, an Elvis singing in the doorway. Same property, every time.

If Stallion Mountain is on your list, send me a message and tell me what date you are looking at. I’d love to hear about it.

What Stallion Mountain looks like through a camera

Three things carry the photos here, and it helps to know what they are before you pick a ceremony time. There is the mountain sitting behind the ceremony lawn, the shade under the trees along the cart path, and the fairway in the last hour of daylight.

The mountain is the reason to marry outside. The Garden ceremony site is an open lawn with a paved aisle running to a black iron rotunda, and there is nothing behind that rotunda but green fairway and a bare mountain ridge. Wedgewood describes the view as Sunrise Mountain, and it fills the frame in a way most Las Vegas venues cannot manage without a drive. The photo at the top of this page is that arch, mid ceremony.

The shade is the reason the middle of the day still works. A cart path runs from the clubhouse under a row of big trees, and the light coming through them is soft and even. That is where I take couples and wedding parties while the sun is still high, and it is why the group photos in the gallery below look nothing like harsh noon light even when they were made at noon.

The fairway is the reason to save twenty minutes for later. Open watered grass with a mountain behind it turns gold in the last hour before sunset, and the water on the course throws some of that light back. Nothing else on the property changes as much between four o’clock and seven.

Inside, the clubhouse holds two reception rooms: the Ballroom, which has its own private bar, and the Sunrise Room, which has floor to ceiling windows and doors straight out onto the patio. Both photograph warm, and both hold color well, so a strong palette in your linens and flowers shows up in the pictures instead of washing out. You can see that across the gallery, where the same rooms read as green, black and gold, dusty blue and burgundy depending on whose wedding it was.

What it takes to photograph a wedding here

Everything is a short walk, and that is the whole advantage

Your ceremony site, your reception room and the course are all a few minutes apart on foot. Nobody gets into a car between the ceremony and dinner, and the couple can leave their own reception for a golden hour walk and be back before anyone notices.

That sounds small. It is the single biggest difference between a venue like this one and a wedding split across two or three addresses, because every drive on a wedding day comes out of your portrait time. Compare it with the Revere Golf Club in Henderson, where plenty of couples marry elsewhere and drive out for the reception, and the drive has to be built into the timeline in writing.

Pick your ceremony site by your month

Wedgewood gives you three: the Garden on the lawn, the Patio under a large awning, and the Chapel indoors. They will ask you to choose when you tour, and in practice your date makes most of the decision for you.

• The Garden is the open one. Best looking of the three, and no shade anywhere on it. Spring, fall, and evening ceremonies once the sun is low.
• The Patio is covered. The awning softens the light on everybody’s face, and the bistro lights along it come up in photos as the sun goes down. This is the one for a hot afternoon.
• The Chapel is indoors, with two walls of windows looking out at the course. Summer afternoons, December, wind, and rain.

Summer is the season that catches couples out. Las Vegas runs past 100 degrees for months, and the stretch from late morning to late afternoon is hard on guests sitting outside in folding chairs. If you are marrying in July or August, look at the Patio and the Chapel first. I’ve written more about what a summer wedding here is actually like and about the best time of year to get married in Las Vegas if you are still choosing your month.

Ask about the course before you plan your portraits

Golf is still played at Stallion Mountain, so where you can walk and when is something the venue sorts out rather than something you decide on the day. Bring it up while you are building your timeline and your coordinator will tell you which part of the course is clear at the hour you want to be out there.

Fifteen minutes is enough. Every course photo in the gallery came from a walk that short.

You hire your own photographer

Photography is not part of the Wedgewood package. Wedgewood’s FAQ says couples can bring in outside vendors for most of the wedding and names the photographer specifically, with food and drink as the exception since Wedgewood caters and holds the liquor license. Policies change, so get it written into your own contract when you sign.

The best time of day for photos at Stallion Mountain

The last hour before sunset is when this venue looks like itself. For an outdoor ceremony I ask for a start about two hours before the sun goes down. That leaves room for the ceremony, for family photos while everyone is still gathered, and then for the two of you to walk out onto the course while the grass is still gold.

Sunset in Las Vegas moves by more than three hours across the year, so the same clock time is a different wedding in June than it is in December. A five o’clock ceremony in June is full daylight. A five o’clock ceremony in December happens after dark. Once you have your date, the ceremony time follows from it.

A December wedding here is the case where a first look earns its keep, because the sun is gone by late afternoon and a first look moves your portraits into the daylight you actually have.

If you are getting married at Stallion Mountain

What I like about photographing here is how little of the day gets spent in transit. The ceremony, the reception and that stretch of fairway are all a short walk apart, so the day stays in one place and the light is the only thing you have to plan around.

I’m the photographer at every wedding I book, so nobody gets sent in my place. My rate is $300 an hour when you book two hours or more, and eight hours is what most couples choose for a full wedding day. There is more of the work on my wedding photography page and every rate is on the pricing page. You can also see the other Las Vegas venues and locations I photograph at, including Bali Hai Golf Club and Canyon Gate Country Club if a course wedding is what you are after.

I hold a date once your venue is booked, so as soon as you have signed with Stallion Mountain, email me at mckenzie@msweddingimage.com or send me a message here. Tell me your date and what you have planned so far, and we will go from there.