Wedding DJ at The Water’s Edge Country Club in Penhook, VA

The Space

The golf course at Water’s Edge was laid out in 1988 by R.F. Loving Jr and reworked by Richard Mandell in 2008, and the 712 acre property carries 13.5 miles of Smith Mountain Lake shoreline around it. The 28,000 square foot clubhouse anchors the grounds, and it is part of McConnell Golf’s family of 15 private championship courses spread across the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee, so couples booking here are joining a network with a long track record of hosting private events.

For a ceremony, a small chapel is set among the trees on the property, separate from the clubhouse itself, which gives couples a quiet wooded backdrop before guests move indoors or onto the water side of the grounds for the reception. We have worked a wedding in this room before, and the layout rewards a couple who wants the ceremony tucked into the trees and the party centered in the clubhouse afterward, rather than one continuous outdoor footprint.

Capacity & Layout

The clubhouse holds three named event spaces: the Ballroom, the Corral Room and the Veranda, and seated capacity tops out around 150 guests. That number puts a ceiling on the guest list before invitations go out, and it also tells a couple how the room will feel: at full capacity a dance floor and DJ table share the Ballroom with round tables rather than a separate room, so seating layout and dance floor placement need to be settled early with the venue’s own event staff.

The Corral Room and the Veranda give a couple a second and third option for a rehearsal dinner, a smaller cocktail hour, or an overflow bar, which matters most when the guest count runs toward the upper end of what the Ballroom can seat. Because the golf course and grounds themselves count as additional outdoor event area, a couple can also split a day between an outdoor cocktail hour on the grounds and an indoor reception in the Ballroom without changing venues.

Amenities

The clubhouse itself includes dining areas, bar areas, a men’s lounge, a fitness center and a well stocked pro shop, and valet parking is available for the wedding day, which takes the parking question off a couple’s list entirely for a property this size. Those amenities point to a clubhouse built for members who spend a full day on site, not a rental hall that opens only for the event, and that shows in how finished the interior spaces already are.

Beyond the wedding day itself, the property carries golf, tennis, swimming, boating, fishing and horseback riding, which makes it a natural fit for a couple planning a weekend around the wedding rather than a single afternoon, with out of town guests able to fill a Friday or Saturday morning before the ceremony. The course’s island green at hole 7, extending out into the lake, is also a detail worth knowing if engagement or day after photos are part of the plan.

Location & Getting There

Water’s Edge sits in Penhook, Virginia, on Smith Mountain Lake, with the golf course itself running along 13.5 miles of shoreline. That lake setting is the reason most couples choose the property, since it puts water views within reach of both the ceremony and the reception without a couple needing to leave the grounds to find them.

The clubhouse is where the working part of the day happens, and its 28,000 square feet includes hard flooring and a mix of open and separated rooms, so a DJ setting up in the Ballroom has a defined footprint to work with rather than an outdoor tent whose edges shift with the weather; sound stays contained to that room rather than carrying across the golf course.