The Golden Bear Club at Keene's Pointe

My husband and I loved our wedding at the Golden Bear Club!! Caitlyn, the Director of Events, is so wonderful!! She is so sweet and was always so quick to respond to all of my questions. She was also soooo helpful when we had to postpone our May 2020 wedding to September. The venue is beautiful! We had our ceremony indoors and still took photos outside by the gazebo, the lake, and the staircase. The food was amazing and the reception space is beautiful as well!!! We truly had the best day and I recommend the Golden Bear Club at Keene's Pointe for your wedding ceremony/reception!!

Part 2 The open bar was not stocked with the contracted and agreed to products. I personally had to ask for Titos vodka for a guest rather than the Smirnoff being served. When the guest complained to me about the wine I went to the bar and none of the contracted wine choices were being served. When asking the bar tenders where is the wine, we contracted for they had to see a manager for resolve. This was a constant challenge throughout the night that as host we should never have to deal with on the night of a wedding. Another extreme disappointment as well as an embarrassment to us as host. The bar package outlined in the contracted was not what was served to our guest. We only wanted what was agreed to. Forget about us enjoying the special night. Our wedding coordinator did the best she could and said she too will never do an event with the Golden Bear team again. When we outlined the problems with the management team their attitude was that employee turnover is part of their industry and they felt they did what they were obligated to versus what was contractually required and morally right. Don’t ever use them as they could care less about how special a night it is for you but how they can make money from you. Worst wedding venue team in Orlando. Beware!!! Deceptive and could care less about you. We did contact them for resolve before posting and John Bixler basically said FU, we did what we were suppose to and turnover is part of our industry. Knight 39 is the management company who manages the Tuscawilla as well as other golf courses in the area. Looks like they could care less about events. Members of the club were our guest as well and they said it is par for the management not to keep staff and follow through with service promise. Food sucks and it ruined our special night, especially when you have to hear about complaints from your guest throughout the night. Pass on this venue or any others that Knight 39 manages. Disgusting….

Part 1 Nightmare Venue and management… So do not even consider this venue. Not because of the location but be prepared to be ripped off and have a ruined reception. Here is an outline of what we discussed with the management of Golden Bear about the problems we encountered. For the executive team of the Golden Bear Club and its managing partners, it was very unprofessional for us to go to the rehearsal at the venue the day before the event to hear from you that the original F&B event director (Amber) had been terminated for fraudulent inflation of event contracts as well as other unprofessional behaviors. (the response we got from management was she was “transferred”) Which obviously we shared with management that we had issues with her charging us service charges on non-laborious items such as linens etc. We were then told by management the night before our reception that Chef Andrew had resigned over a month ago and was replaced by the old sous chef who had returned. This did not go over well since we only considered the venue because they had a new chef and we had not been happy with the F&B at the Golden Bear in the past because of the old chef. However, after 4 separate meetings with Amber (the event director at that time) and Chef Andrew, and 2 separate tastings we finally picked 3 delightful entrees and were very precise about the bar items, entrée’s, as well as the breads and salads being served. We were looking forward to Chef Andrews delivery and presentation. We touted the fact that Golden Bear had a new chef and for our local friends and members of the club we were very pleasantly surprised at what a quality chef he was. Of course, hearing of Chef Andrews resignation for the first time at the rehearsal the night before our event was extremely upsetting to us. Knowing that the management never informed us of a change of chefs and the amount of details we had covered with previous management have all fell by the wayside by the termination of a rogue event director. Now we were faced with our menu items being prepared by a different chef who is a sous chef. Which is like going to a different restaurant all together because what we chose to be cooked by a chef cannot be duplicated by another as we agreed. We spoke at length with a newly introduced event coordinator that night and she (Caitlyn) felt so bad about what had happened to us that she teared up with emotion and sorrow for what we were faced with. She expressed to us that night that we were getting a credit for the overcharges and a discount as well. None of which was ever addressed again or ever credited. More broken promises by the Golden Bear Club management team. No sleep that night before the big event due to worries of the major changes to such a special day that they never planned on disclosing to us And as we found out on the evening of the event the menu was nothing like what we sampled and the disappointment we felt in the quality of the menu items embarrassed us as host of the event. Most of the guest had the filet but no one person got a steak knife to cut it. It was not even close to the steak we had at the tasting. Extremely disappointing again to serve something different than what we contracted and agreed to. Most who got the fish said it had an ammonia smell to it as if it was spoiled. Very disappointing since the grouper, we had at the tasting was excellent. This fish should not have been served.

The Golden Bear Club was a surprising venue to host our wedding. The price, compared to other venues around, is extremely reasonable and accommodating. In both beauty and satisfaction, they were able to suite all of my requests for what a venue should have for a total wedding experience. They boast wonderful and beautiful scenery, as reach of their staff are particularly polite. Their on-site chef made both the cocktail hour and dinner a magical experience. Savory dishes, as well as quite filling, they made sure to handle it all. Michelle, their wedding coordinator, blew me away on her professionalism and rapid response time to any of our questions. I cannot tell you how much of a gem she was. She took my breath away on the lengths she went to ensure everything was going smoothly before and during the wedding. She even went as far as setting up the tables, placing on boutonnieres, setting up a set schedule of events for the wedding, and handling photography moments. The value for her experience made my wedding far better than I could’ve imaged, and I thank them dearly for that. You will not regret your choice of venue if you go with the Golden Bear Club!

Beautiful location, food is great, staff are so helpful and take care of everything! perfect!

I really enjoyed the location (it was beautiful!), but had a lot of difficulty keeping things in order due to staffing changes. The last two people were great including the general manager. Food was wonderful and everyone enjoyed it. Our dance floor started to come apart at the end of the night and we had issues with the bar. (We had purchased a keg to be poured in place of bottle beer and I only saw bottle beer served)