The River Ranch
The River Ranch
The River Ranch, is North Dakota’s premier destination for weddings, corporate events, and unforgettable moments. Set on 1,800 exclusive acres near the Missouri River and 6 miles south of Williston, the venue offers a rare blend of natural beauty, thoughtful service, and personalized experiences.
Driving Demand
The River Ranch team was ready to scale and needed to increase event bookings, but with demand heavily reliant on word-of-mouth referrals, their reach was limited, and new inquiries were slow to fill the pipeline. Their existing website was of no help, as it undersold the experience, and most people didn’t grasp the venue’s value until they toured the property in person. That added friction to the booking process and put pricing under pressure. Our goal was to deliver a website that expands The River Ranch's reach, telegraphs luxury at a glance, speaks directly to high-intent prospects, and shortens the time from first click to booking.
Alignment
Our first step toward solving those challenges was to align The River Ranch’s business goals with its customers’ needs and turn that alignment into a single source of truth for direction, requirements, content, design, and development. That created clarity, reduced revisions, and allowed the project to move forward with confidence.
The River Ranch serves three core customer segments: wedding, corporate, and family/special-event clients. It was essential to build an experience that spoke directly to each group with tailored messaging, visuals, and content that aligned with their priorities. While remaining consistent with a single premium brand standard that reinforces The River Ranch as a high-end destination, no matter what the occasion or who’s booking.
Architecture
With the team aligned and requirements defined, the next step was to create the blueprint for the website's structure and navigation. The site was organized around core revenue paths, weddings, events, lodging, and tours, so each visitor could immediately understand the value provided and take action.
Each core revenue path was built around a single primary action, such as requesting availability, scheduling a tour, or starting a booking. Defining that action up front let us connect the proper form, availability data, pricing context, and CRM intake behind it, so every inquiry entered the pipeline with the information the team needed to respond and close. The result is that the website does more than route traffic. It now serves as the front end of the sales process, controlling how leads enter and how quickly they progress toward revenue.
Content
Great content earns attention, builds trust, and removes friction at each step of the journey. For The River Ranch, we needed to ensure that the website answers the right question at the right time, signals authority to search engines, and drives qualified traffic to key pages. Short paragraphs and scannable subheads create a smooth cadence, and visuals do the heavy lifting without crowding the page.
An example of immediate impact was The River Ranch’s search performance. Before the rebuild, The River Ranch appeared for local discovery searches but not for higher-value statewide terms like “Wedding Venue North Dakota” and “Wedding North Dakota.” Within the first month after launch, the new site began ranking on the first page of Google for those state-level keywords. That lift is directly tied to how we approached the Weddings content. We built it around real search intent, positioned The River Ranch as a destination rather than just a local venue, and linked it throughout the site as a primary conversion path. The result is a broader reach, stronger perceived authority, and more qualified inquiries without paid spend.
Design
The site opens with cinematic, full-bleed imagery and calm headline rhythm, setting expectations for a premium experience rather than a generic event hall. Visitors are immediately invited to take action through intentional and direct calls to action such as Check Availability, Book Your Wedding, Request Availability, Schedule Tour, and View The Lodge. Those actions sit exactly where you expect them: by the hero, in the Weddings flow, in Lodging, and alongside tour prompts.
Design also supports sales and pricing confidence. Availability and booking triggers are pulled forward into the interface, including a dedicated "Check Availability" and date-select experience that ties directly to packages and pricing. Financing reassurance appears at the moment of commitment, with Flexible financing offered through Affirm. Social proof and gallery visuals are seamlessly integrated into decision points, building credibility and desire within the same frame as the action. The result is a visual system that feels high-end and intentional, yet still functions like a self-serve sales process: view the property, understand the offer, validate the fit, and either schedule a tour or begin booking without waiting for a phone call.
Development
Under the hood, the build is modern, secure, and easy to operate. Hosting on Vercel enables fast global delivery and zero-downtime deploys. Sanity provides a structured CMS with roles, validations, and live preview, allowing The River Ranch team to ship content safely without a developer post-launch. The result is a site that ships fast and stays easy to manage as content and traffic grow.
Every core revenue path is connected to a working flow, not just a static form. The booking and payment experience is wired end-to-end. Event Temple captures inbound interest and ties it to the correct event type for proposals, contracts, and signatures. Stripe processes payments online. Affirm provides flexible financing for higher-ticket bookings. Resend triggers instant confirmation emails and next steps. Intercom, powered by Fin AI, handles questions in real-time, allowing guests to get answers about availability, packages, lodging, or policies without waiting for a manual reply.
Together, these systems ensure accurate attribution, maintain fast performance, and enable the team to operate and scale without accumulating tech debt or vendor lock-in. The website now serves as a dynamic intake and transaction platform for The River Ranch. It routes leads to the right pipeline, supports pricing, takes payment, answers questions, and follows up, all with minimal back-and-forth from the team.
Outcome
From the home page onward, the new site reframes The River Ranch’s digital presence around clarity, confidence, and conversion: luxury is immediately apparent, and weddings, events, lodging, and tours are easy to explore, price, and book. High-impact visuals, focused messaging, and clear calls to action move visitors from first impression to inquiry in fewer clicks, shortening decision time and protecting premium positioning. This positions The River Ranch as a destination, accelerates bookings, and reduces pressure to negotiate on price.
In short, The River Ranch now has a digital front door that serves three purposes simultaneously. It markets the venue with authority. It sells the experience with confidence. It handles intake, follow-up, and payment in a way that allows the team to scale.