The Ranch Alternative to an Amelia Island Wedding.
35–45 minutes from the island: 246 private acres, a cypress lodge, and a river instead of a resort.
Trade the resort ballroom for a private ranch.
River & Roots Ranch is a wedding venue near Amelia Island, Florida — 35–45 minutes inland from Fernandina Beach in Bryceville, Nassau County. Couples planning an Amelia Island wedding weekend use the ranch two ways: as the main venue (246 exclusive acres, up to 150 guests, from $5,000) with guests lodging on the island, or as the rehearsal-dinner and welcome-party setting that gives a beach wedding weekend a second landscape.
The island venues are beautiful — and busy. Resort ballrooms book back-to-back events, beach permits cap your timeline, and everything happens in public view. The ranch is the counterpoint: one wedding at a time, no strangers in the background of your photos, amplified music until 10 PM, and a cypress lodge that sleeps 12 so the wedding party wakes up where the celebration happened.
Why Amelia Island couples drive inland.
Same corner of Northeast Florida, completely different day.
Venue pricing, island-simple.
Up to 12 hours
Up to 12 hours
5-hour evening · up to 100 guests
Fri–Sun with lodging
Full package details on the Weddings page.
Answers, plainly stated.
Everything else — call 303.946.5768 or send an inquiry.
About 35–45 minutes by car from Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach, in Bryceville, Nassau County — the same county as the island, on its quiet inland side.
Yes — that's the most common plan. Guests keep their beach hotels and drive or shuttle 35–45 minutes to the ranch for the wedding day; the wedding party stays on-site in the lodge, which sleeps 12.
Exclusivity and time. The ranch hosts one wedding at a time with 12-hour access to 246 private acres — no resort foot traffic, no beach permit windows, no ballroom turnover. Amplified music runs until 10 PM, and the setting (river, oaks, pasture) gives photographers an entirely different palette than the beach.
Yes — the stand-alone rehearsal dinner package is $1,500 for a five-hour evening with up to 100 guests, a popular pairing with an island wedding day.
Up to 150 guests with tables, chairs, and linens included; up to 200 with the extra-guest add-on.
Yes — Jacksonville International Airport is about 40 minutes away, roughly the same drive as to the island itself, making the ranch an easy hub for destination wedding weekends.
Tour the ranch on your next scouting trip.
We'll time it to golden hour so you see the land at its best.