What It Costs to Have the Whole Ranch to Yourselves

Close your eyes for a second and picture the morning of your wedding.

You wake up in the lodge to the sound of birds in the pines. Somebody's already made coffee, and you carry a warm mug out to the porch. The pasture is silver with dew, the light is just starting to come up over the treeline, and somewhere down the hall your bridesmaids are laughing at something you'll hear about later. Your mom is in a rocking chair. Nobody is rushing you. Nobody is setting up for the next couple, because there is no next couple.

Today, all 246 acres are yours.

That feeling, that long, slow exhale, is what you're really choosing when you choose where to get married. And right beside it is the question most couples ask a little quietly: what will this cost? You deserve a straight answer. Here it is, along with the ways couples shape a day here that feels like them and fits the life they're building.

Not a ballroom. A whole ranch.

Every wedding here starts with the same gift. Picture turning off the road and rolling slowly down the oak-lined drive, Spanish moss moving overhead, the city falling away behind you. Then the lodge comes into view: custom cypress and heart pine, soaring cathedral ceilings, twin stone fireplaces, and 3,913 square feet of covered porches looking out over the pasture.

All of it is yours for the day:

• 246 untouched acres and 1.2 miles of St. Marys River frontage
• The bridal suite and groom's room, open to you from 9 AM
• The great room, the porches and the gardens
• Tables, chairs and linens for up to 150 guests

No other event shares the property. No one taps their watch. When the last song ends and the sparklers burn down, you're still home.

What the day costs

Then there are the touches your guests will still be talking about at Christmas: a farewell brunch the morning after ($750), a rehearsal dinner on its own evening ($1,500), another night in the lodge ($800). Planning a bigger party? Tables, chairs and linens come with the ranch for your first 150 guests, and every guest beyond that is a simple add-on at $40 each.

A 50% deposit holds your date, and the balance is due 60 days before you say your vows.

A beautifully equipped blank canvas

We're vendor-open, on purpose. Bring the caterer whose food you'd drive an hour for and the band that played at your parents' anniversary. You choose your catering, bar, music, florals, lighting and cake, so every dollar goes to the things that make it feel like you.

And if the sky turns? Our covered porches shelter up to 100 guests, and there's something unforgettable about a summer storm rolling across the pasture while you're dry, candlelit and dancing. For a larger celebration, a rented tent becomes your rain plan.

Three ways couples shape their day

An intimate Thursday. Seventy-five of your closest people. You trade vows beneath the grand oak just as the light goes gold, close enough to hear the leaves. Then dinner on the back lawn, with the pasture stretching out to the treeline.

A classic Saturday. A rehearsal night on the land the evening before. The next day, 125 guests, cocktails on the wraparound porch with candlelight on the steps, and a reception behind the lodge that runs until the very last song.

The whole weekend. One hundred seventy-five guests. Your inner circle sleeps in the Ranch House two nights in a row. Saturday night ends with everyone on the porch in borrowed sweatshirts. Sunday starts with coffee by the river.

Here's roughly what each one looks like. The venue figures are ours. Everything else is an estimate: our preferred vendors price every wedding to your guest count and your choices, so treat these as starting ranges, not quotes.

*Full Weekend Experience plus 25 guests beyond the first 150.

The ranch itself is about a quarter to two fifths of the total, and on the full weekend that includes a place for your people to sleep. Your guest count moves the rest more than anything else.

Where the land does the work

• The setting is already dressed. The Clearing has a timber arbor at the end of a paved aisle, framed by tall pines. The grand oak and the riverbank need nothing at all. Many couples spend far less on flowers here than they planned.
• The porches can be your rain plan. Keep your guest list under 100 and you may never need a tent.
• A weekday is a gift. Choosing a Sunday through Thursday keeps $2,000 in your pocket for the thing you'll love most.
• Your people can stay. With the full weekend, 12 of them sleep in the Ranch House. That's the hotel block you don't need, and the late-night porch conversation you'll still remember at your tenth anniversary.

What doesn't fit in a budget

Some of the best parts of the day never show up on an invoice.

The light turning gold over the river while your photographer begs for one more. The hush as your dad walks you down the aisle toward the arbor. Your grandmother settled into a rocking chair on the porch, telling a stranger how you two met. The quiet walk back up from the water after everyone else has gone to bed, your shoes in your hand, the music still ringing in your ears.

Now fast forward ten years. You drive back down that oak-lined drive with a couple of little ones in the back seat. You walk them out to the same tree and say, this is where it all started. It's all still here, and so are you two.

Those are the moments couples choose a place like this for.

Come walk the land

Numbers can only tell you so much. Come stand under the oak. Walk the aisle in The Clearing. Look out at the river and listen to how quiet it gets. Most couples know in the first five minutes.

Book a tour and we'll bring the real numbers for your date.