A Year to Get Ready: Your 2027 and 2028 Wedding Timeline

You're engaged.

The ring still catches the light when you're not expecting it: at a red light, in the grocery store, across the dinner table. Your phone hasn't stopped buzzing, and everyone wants to know the same thing: have you picked a date?

If your wedding is a year or more away, take a long, slow breath. You're right on time. This is the part you get to enjoy.

Most couples who reach out to us are planning for fall 2027 or spring 2028. Here's how we'd spend the months between now and then, so the year ahead feels like anticipation instead of a to-do list.

12 to 18 months out: find your place

Picture a Saturday drive. You turn off the road, roll slowly down an oak-lined lane with Spanish moss swaying overhead, and the city falls away behind you. You step out of the car, it's quiet, and one of you says, "Oh." That's how you'll know.

Everything else grows from this decision, so start here.

• Dream up your guest list. A rough number is enough. It shapes your budget more than anything else. For real numbers, read What It Costs to Have the Whole Ranch to Yourselves.
• Walk the places you're considering. Photos only go so far. Stand where you'd say your vows. Listen to how it sounds. Picture your guests arriving, and ask what happens if it rains.
• Claim your date. At River and Roots, a 50% deposit holds it, and the whole ranch is yours for the day. Fall Saturdays go first. If your date can flex, a weekday wedding may be the loveliest surprise of your planning.

9 to 12 months out: gather your people

This is the season of first conversations: the photographer who gets a little teary looking at the river, the caterer who asks about your grandmother's recipes. You'll start to hear your day before you can see it.

• Choose your photographer and caterer. The ones you'll love fill their calendars a year ahead.
• Find your music, whether that's a band, a DJ or a friend with the perfect playlist.
• Bring in a planner or day-of coordinator if you'd like one. We're happy to share the ones who know the ranch.
• Send save-the-dates, especially for a weekday wedding or a guest list that travels.

6 to 9 months out: the look and the feel

Now it gets fun. Fabric swatches on the kitchen table. Flowers you keep texting each other pictures of. Here's the good news: on a ranch, the land has already done most of the decorating.

• Choose your flowers and decor. The grand oak, the riverbank and the timber arbor in The Clearing need very little. Many couples spend less on flowers here than they planned.
• Decide on a tent. Our covered porches shelter up to 100 guests if the sky turns. For a larger celebration, a tent is your rain plan.
• Arrange rentals like restrooms, lighting, a dance floor or a generator if your plans call for them. Tables, chairs and linens for up to 150 guests already come with the ranch.
• Find what you'll wear, and leave time for alterations.
• Think about where everyone sleeps. The Ranch House holds 12 of your people. Picture them padding into the kitchen the morning of, coffee in hand, the pasture silver with dew. For everyone else, Jacksonville and Amelia Island are close by.

3 to 6 months out: the details

The tasting where you both reach for the same bite. The night you finally write your vows. The calendar starts to feel real.

• Taste the menu with your caterer and settle on your favorites.
• Choose your cake.
• Send invitations 8 to 10 weeks before the day.
• Plan the evenings around it: a rehearsal on the land, a welcome dinner on the porch, a farewell brunch the morning after.
• Walk the property again with your planner and vendors, and map out the day from first look to last dance.

The final 60 days

• Settle your balance with us, due 60 days before the wedding.
• Confirm your guest count, your timeline and when each vendor arrives.
• Sketch a rainy-day version of the timeline, just in case.
• Gather the small things that matter most: rings, vows, license, and a little kit for the unexpected.

Then let it go. The planning is done.

The night before, you'll sit on the porch while the crickets start up and the last light slips behind the treeline. Tomorrow you'll walk down the aisle toward the person you love. The rest is yours to feel.

Every season has its own light

Fall is our most requested season, and it's easy to see why: cool evenings that call for a sweater, soft amber light and fewer bugs. Spring brings mild days, green pastures and the flower fields waking up. Summer is warm and alive, with afternoon storms that roll across the pasture and leave everything glittering, so midsummer couples plan for shade and a little patience. In every season, golden hour on the St. Marys is worth building your photos around.

Start where it all begins

If your wedding is 12 to 18 months away, the first step is the best one: come see the land. Walk the aisle in The Clearing. Stand beneath the grand oak and listen to the leaves. Look out at the river.

A year from now, you'll be standing in that exact spot with everyone you love watching. Come see it first.

Book a tour and we'll sketch out your year together.