Keepsake at THE Academy

review before. We booked with the Keepsake for our rehearsal dinner when Dana, the sales coordinator, was our contact and she was incredible. When the new owners took over, it became an absolute nightmare. We reached out to them with multiple emails and voicemails weeks before our event until finally receiving a phone call back. The same situation occurred days before the event when we were unable to reach them again. This made an already stressful time even worse. Then the day of our rehearsal dinner was an absolute disaster. They were in complete breach of our contract in every way and form. The groom had to set up the chairs himself upon arrival (or else it wouldn’t have been done), and other things we were assured would be ready (our video slideshow, a staff greeter, our playlist and more) were nowhere to be found. Only some items from our menu were served, while many were completely left out. We had hungry guests traveling from long distances and were left waiting for food that was served an hour after the agreed upon time. So many food items were wrong and missing that one of our guests had to run and get pizza so our vegetarians would have something to eat. This was especially shocking since our menu and timeline was clear and even created during a meeting with Damel and Dana. Jordan was not present at the event due to family emergency. But Damel, instead of being apologetic and attempting to fix the problems, was rude, aggressive and defensive. He accused the groom of yelling at the staff (he did not) and had the nerve to scold the crying bride to “calm down”. He then cursed at us saying “the f’ing appetizers are coming out” (they did not). As for the buffet, some food was cold, serving utensils were missing, and refill trays weren’t filled for 20 minutes. The night before our wedding, we were made to feel like the bad guys for simply wanting our agreed upon event and bride spent most of the evening crying. The only bright spot in the horrible night was Angel, the catering manager, who had only worked there a week. She was apologetic and kind and attempted to put out every fire she could. She even downloaded Spotify premium on her own dime to get our playlist playing. Thank you Angel! The rest of the staff were also working as hard as they could when being put in a terrible position by terrible management. The owners excuses were insufficient and their behavior was inexcusable. They were, unprepared, downright cruel, and completely mishandled our event. We cannot warn you enough to never book at the Keepsake, at least while Jordan and Damel are in charge.

hip very recently and their communication with our bride was terrible. After finding it nearly impossible to get in touch, many details were left unconfirmed until a few days before the wedding event. They are assured by Jordan, however, that things would be smooth after an apology for going awol. This did not occur. Upon arrival, The groom found none of the tables set up and that their video slideshow and playlist (which had been discussed and confirmed with Jordan) were not set up or playing either. He had to spend the beginning of his own event setting this up. After the guests had arrived, there was a delay with the selected passed hors d’oeuvres coming out and the ones passed out were not what were selected ahead of time. When the bride inquired to the delay and mistake, she was cursed at by the staff member, Demal, who raised his voice and said they were “fucking coming!” and that she needed to relax. It was completely inappropriate and made our bride cry and miss out on time during her special event. The actual dinner food that eventually did come out was almost entirely different from what the bride and groom had selected and included no vegetarian options that were also preplanned. One of the guests actually went to a pizza place to pay for pizza for the rest of the vegetarians. It was absolutely unacceptable and made the couple deeply disappointed.  The literal only positive was the server, Angel. She went out of her way amidst all the chaos to check in with our bride and to make sure that everyone was OK despite all the challenges. It should be noted that while everyone else had a cold or quite objectively mean demeanor, Angel was exceptionally warm and apologetic.  I would absolutely not recommend this venue to anyone looking for a smooth event that matched their planning. The staff both ahead of time and at the event were poor communicators, unprofessional, and downright rude. Definitely take your business elsewhere. 

parents. We stopped by to tour the space multiple times since we planned most of it ourselves - and Dana was always there to answer questions and give great advice. It is such a cool venue. We had a lot of unique ideas and different decorations for our ‘nerdy’ wedding haha. When we toured other venues they felt too dressy and fancy for our style. Keepsake is just rustic and unique enough - but still super classy - and the prices were WAY more reasonable than the other venues we toured. And of course - the big day!!! The event ran sooo smoothly. Dana worked wonders with our day-of coordinator and vendors to get everything timed perfectly for ample dancing time!!! I had such a blast and there was literally zero stress on my part as the bride! Amazing! The music sounded great in the space despite the tall ceilings - it’s soundproofed well! The food was fantastic - you gotta get the crispy duck!! And the bar was on point. Thank you to all Keepsake staff for the work you did to create the wedding day of our dreams!!!

. She worked tirelessly with us to make our vision come to life, met countless times with me on site to explain and execute our vision. We are so appreciative of her expertise, time, consideration, and skill. The venue space is beautiful and unique and the food, cocktail hour, were phenomenal. Our guests could not have complimented the wedding more! We thank you Heather and the staff at KeepSake at The Academy for the wedding of our dreams!