Reviews of Keen Events PDX (Event Planner)

Christina Kuenzli

Elise was so so easy to work with! I had never met her before photographing this amazingly beautiful styled shoot she coordinated/designed/executed and upon actually meeting her I felt like we had been friends and worked together forever! Planning an event of any kind is stressful and Elise does it with ease and grace. Hiring Elise isn't just hiring a coordinator, your gaining a friend!

Katelyn Williams

Wonderful experience, so professional and organized!

Lacy Kalberer

I had the absolute pleasure of working with Elise where she assisted day of coordination for one of my weddings. I don't even know where to start as she is top notch straight across the board. She's caring, down to earth, straight forward, has attention to detail, and truly has a passion for event planning. I would work with her any day, and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to have her on my team that day! You won't go wrong with hiring her, coming from a fellow event planner!

Heather Scheer

Elise is not only a delight, but a rock solid coordinator! We at Delilah’s Catering recently had the pleasure of working with Elise for a wedding. From our first meeting till the end of the event, I could not have been more pleased with her attention to detail, communication and overall delightful disposition. We work with a lot of event coordinators, and I can honestly say that I am looking forward to our next event together. It’s always a bonus to work with a team that helps to make our jobs smooth.

Daniel Massa

We can't say enough great things about Elise as a wedding coordinator. With all the details that need to be worked out planning a wedding, Elise helped us keep on track and did so in a very thoughtful and supportive manner. We appreciated her insight and guidance in a process that can seem overwhelming at times. Elise is a great listener and really took the time to understand our vision and what was most important to us. On the day of the wedding, she was so helpful behind the scenes from attending to the bridal party to making sure the venue was just perfect. This included setting up all the flower arrangements and adding finishing touches to the cake, not an easy task! It was evident she really cared about making our wedding so special. Her attention to detail is outstanding. Not only is Elise excellent at her job, she is also a very warm, caring, and thoughtful person who is easy and fun to work with. With all the stress that can come with a wedding, Elise makes you feel at ease. Brides and grooms who choose Keen Events PDX can rest easy knowing that Elise is on top of it. You won't be disappointed!

Maggie Ryan

We brought Elise in to our wedding planning a little late. She stepped right into our plans and made it easy to bring our dreams to reality. She was there from the start of the day to set up the park, helped organize our bike parade, transferred everything to the reception, and had the reception venue glowing when our guests showed up. She even cleaned up our entire reception site while the dance party rocked on without anyone noticing. The day went so well, she let us focus on our celebration and guests! It was the best day!

Bethany Beckerle

Everyone always tells you to hire a wedding coordinator, but when you're on a budget and thinking your wedding will just be small and casual, it's hard to really justify hiring one. However, I will now be that person telling everyone they need to hire a coordinator and it needs to be Elise. We hired Elise as a day of coordinator but she is so much more than that. She was constantly checking in, giving advice, and generally just helping us feel more at ease. Elise really understood our vibe and never pushed anything on us that wasn't us. I had people commenting that I was the most laid back bride and honestly a lot of that had to do with Elise. She took charge the second she got to the venue and I just got to enjoy the beautiful day. I had so many friends and family tell me how wonderful she was and how impressed they were by her. We are so, so happy with our decision to hire Elise- I can't say enough good things about her.

Arielle Leisman

As a wedding photographer, working with the right team can make or break the flow of the day. Elise thinks of EVERYTHING and makes your vendors feel like they’re all cohesively working together (while also keeping it fun!). You rock girlfriend!!

Michelle Bernard

Elise and Keen Events are seriously good event planners. We had our wedding in a public park with limited access to much of anything so all our logistics needed to be coordinated thoughtfully and succinctly. Everything was brought to the park for the reception and it came out better than we could have imagined. Friends and family said the event seemed like something out of a European destination. Elise helped us tremendously in referring us to some top notch vendor talent who we could not have been without day of. It was bliss and Elise was always a step ahead of us but in an adaptive, supportive way. We knew we were taking a gamble with our venue but it paid off and it would not have come together so wonderfully without the coordination of Elise and her colleague, Alex. We loved our day and think back on it with bright smiles and grateful hearts. Thank you, Elise and Alex! Mr. + Mrs. Gifford, Portland, Oregon

Sarah Baltazar

I was invited to be a part of a styled shoot with Keen Events, and was completely thrilled with the experience. They were very organized and professional, but also made the day fun and always had smiles on their faces. I highly recommend them for any of your event needs.

Matt Ryman

I just got back from my Bachelor Party in South Lake Tahoe and want to thank Keen Events. Elise worked alongside my best man to help research and schedule all our events. Everything was perfect and timely and there were no complaints. We had a BLAST! Thanks again Elise!

Tania Acuna

Elise was not available to hire for our wedding day so my fiancé and I purchased her consultation package. I sent her my master planning spreadsheet the day before and we chatted on the phone for two hours. I walked away from our conversation feeling less anxious and a lot more prepared. We went over my list of vendors, timeline, rehearsal dinner, and she gave me tons of advice from what to put in my emergency kit to vendor tip guidelines; everything from how to personalize my wedding to advice about florals and decor. I’m so happy I found her and I will be recommending her services to future bride friends.

Mike Boring

I highly recommend Keen Events! We recently used Keen Events for our daughter's wedding. Let me add, this is our only child and we wanted to make it special. I could not be happier with Keen Events and Elise Handler. She executed the perfect plan and made it so easy on us. I really appreciated her attention to detail, positive attitude, flexibility and professionalism as she made this a perfect event for us. I was also impressed by how she took our daughter's wants, needs, and vision and made it happen exactly as my daughter had asked. She kept checking in with us to make sure we were happy and had everything we needed. After the event, she took care of all of the post-wedding clean-up and details so we could relax and enjoy our guests' company. Very, very happy with the most special day or our lives. Thank you Keen Events!

Jenny S

Elise is the absolute best! She went so above and beyond on our day of coordination for our reception. I mean, she was available much more than the day of, with phone check-ins the weeks leading up to the event, sweet texts to see if I needed help with anything, and great advice and suggestions as things arose!! She was an extremely wonderful mix of super professional, caring, and kind and our day was absolutely perfect with her help. We didn't have to worry about anything. I highly recommend Elise to everyone and anyone, from full on wedding planning to day-of coordination. You won't be disappointed!!

Melissa Pantoja

There isn't enough I could say about Elise! If you are shopping around for a wedding coordinator you've found your girl! Elise is professional, efficient, smart, on time, and overall extremely good at what she does. My husband and I are in California and hired Elise in October 2018 to help us plan our out of state wedding. I personally loved that Elise wasn't pushy or salesy, she genuinely wanted us to book with her only if we felt she was the right fit for us. Elise has several different tiers of coordination all of which are very affordable. I had a vision of what I wanted my wedding day to look like prior to booking with Elise so while I did most of the planning Elise was always there to answer any questions I had and provided me with a detailed checklist of all of the items I needed to get done throughout my planning process. Elise was great about following up with me periodically and sending me friendly email reminders about which checklist items needed to get done. She also sent us a sweet "thank you" box filled with goodies about 6 months into our time together. The month of the wedding we had a phone call every week to ensure all of our last minute items were in order and of course to ensure that I was keeping up with my self-care routines. The day of the wedding Elise ensured everybody was on time, placed all of my decor correctly and handled all day of hiccups with a smile. We received so many personal compliments from our guest about how great Elise was. My absolute FAVORITE moment was when Elise came out to my wedding party and I while we were taking photos and fed us our appetizers our guests were enjoying during cocktail hour. Thank you for being amazing Elise! Yay Keen Events! Love, Chase & Melissa Pantoja

Jordan Sevigny

The ladies from Keen Events are such a joy to work with – they’re everything you could want from your event planner; organized, creative, thorough, but calm and collected! We thoroughly enjoyed working with them on a recent styled shoot and would absolutely recommend them to our clients and anyone else looking for an amazing planning team!

Next Dimension Bakery

Loved working with Elise she has a relaxed personality yet gets the job done. We worked on a styled shoot together and she made it so easy and was very flexible with timing for dropping off cake pops for a shoot. Received a lovely little bottle of champagne that is now my favorite! Thanks so much! I hope we can work together many times into the future. You are definitely on my recommendation list!

Sunny Eckerle

First of all - HIRE ELISE! I can't imagine our wedding without her. If you're on the fence about whether to get a wedding coordinator or if you really need one, I'd strongly suggest you do. Plenty of wedding coordinators are detailed-oriented and will get the job done, but working with Elise was such a personal experience. She's caring, helpful, and intuitive. I don't feel in any way that we got a "standard" level of service - she really goes above and beyond in such a valuable way. She even fed our cats the night of our wedding because we'd left the house and totally forgotten, ha! My partner and I did a good deal of the planning ourselves - finding a venue, booking most of our vendors, etc. We thought that because we were having a smaller, somewhat straightforward event (ceremony and reception at the same space, no wedding party) that we wouldn't need a coordinator. About 4 months out from the wedding we realized how overwhelming so many of the smaller details were becoming and decided we needed help. It was such a good decision. Looking back it seems crazy that we thought we didn't need a coordinator. We had initial had calls with 3 coordinators, including Elise. She was by far the most thorough and detail-oriented. She really wanted to understand where we were at with the planning and what we needed/expected from her. She instantly made us feel at ease and taken care of, answering questions and offering ideas from the very start. We could tell that we'd have a very personal and thoughtful experience with Elise just based on her approach to our first call and we weren't wrong. Elise met us for venue walkthroughs to discuss layout, flow, timing, etc. She recommended vendors for some of our outstanding needs and also offered her expertise or guidance on certain decisions that we'd had on the back burner. She made our timeline and worked with all our vendors to ensure they were where they needed to be and at the right time. She's super responsive and checked in many times during those 4 months to see if we needed anything or were feeling stressed. It alleviated SO MUCH stress to know we had someone in our corner we could turn to with questions or concerns. Aside from being extremely detail oriented and organized, one of Elise's big strengths is how intuitive she is. She was able to understand us as a couple and what we needed. You certainly don't get a one size fits all experience with Elise. She is great at reading people and offering exactly what they need. My partner and I weren't "OMG RAH-RAH WEDDING" people. We were excited of course, but had a more low key approach to it all. I was nervous that a coordinator would really push that stereotypical "omg wedding" vibe on us or make us feel bad for not being that way. Elise totally read our energy and offered us the perfect vibe back. I have no doubt that she tailors to each couple so that they have an experience appropriate to their personalities and needs. Another example - the only time I got a bit stressed at our wedding was during the family photos. She could quickly sense that I was getting overwhelmed/frazzled and took me somewhere quiet and private before the ceremony to relax for a few minutes. Small things like that made such a huge difference to our overall experience and moods for the day. Elise did an amazing job. The wedding ran like clockwork. She's everything a wedding coordinator should be but offers even more in that she's a kind, caring, and intuitive person. She really takes the time to get to know you, help you, and make sure your wedding is what you want. You won't regret hiring her! Thanks Elise!!

Amanda Skipper

Elise and Kourtney with Keen Events were such pleasure to work with. They made it easy! From the start to the finish, communication was there. Communication is such a key component in making an event run smooth and also for making the journey enjoyable. Thank you so much for always being there to brainstorm, chat, share inspirations, and get the details all sorted out and in order. You made our event so incredible and run so smooth. I truly will cherish our event forever! You ladies are a pleasure and so fun to work with!

Jasmine Henderson

Elise is an amazing coordinator and planner! We have worked with her twice now on different events and each time she has been extremely accommodating, creative, helpful, and giving of her time. From designing a mood board to orchestrating a whole production, Keen Events creates exactly what you dreamed of and more. If my husband and I could get married again we would definitely hire Keen Events.

marina haynes

If you’re looking for a coordinator who’s got your back then look no further than Elise with Keen events. As a make up artist who works in the industry I’ve met so many coordinators and Elise is the only one who I’ve found to be down to earth, and SO helpful. I even chose her to be my coordinator for my wedding 9/28/18. I have no idea what I would have done without her! My venue failed in so many ways, but Elise was there to pick up all the pieces and I will be forever grateful. Elise helped me along the way finding vendors, emailing them and making sure my timeline was on track. She was even a spark of motivation when I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with planning. Keen events, and Elise will always be my go to for coordination services. She’s simply the BEST to work with

Chelsea Harkey

My fiancé and I have been engaged for about four years now, constantly changing wedding plans and never committing to any plan. I never really understood the role of a wedding planner until I reached out to Elise, and I now don’t understand why anyone would get married without one, especially her! She is AMAZING. Organized, consistent, very time oriented, flexible, and just overall PERFECT. I can’t stress enough how amazing she is, and highly, highly recommend Keen Events PDX to anyone planning to get married. (Btw, we live in Texas and are getting married in PDX, and she took care of everything flawlessly, and took a mood board inspiration and brought it to life, with no issue of us being out of state!)

sea of roses

I had the opportunity to work with Keen Events on a styled shoot and was completely blown away by how the day unfolded. From the communication leading up to the day, all of the thoughtful details and how much love was given to the vendors- if this is how they treat their peers I can only imagine how much more they put in for their clients. I absolutely adore the ladies of Keen Events and would recommend them without a doubt!

Jasmine Torres

It’s always a pleasure working with Keen Events! Elise is very organized, professional and very sweet! Which is exactly what you need from a planner!

Katrina Wrede

Hiring Elise was the BEST decision I made when planning my wedding! We decided on her ‘day of’ package and she made sure everything was perfect and ran smoothly. I assumed that ‘day of’ literally just meant ‘day of’. But no, Elise constantly reached out, checked in to see if I needed anything and was always there if I needed her, every month prior to the wedding. Most importantly she was always asking how we were feeling. She really cares! She also gave us access to a very THOROUGH wedding checklist online which was very helpful. Our wedding day was stress free and my husband and I were able to enjoy our day without worrying about a thing. I was surprised to see she even took personal items she had at home to use on our sweetheart table to make it even more special! Elise is very detailed oriented and puts no pressure on you when it comes to decision making. We hired her mainly because we needed someone to be in charge of a timeline for the day of and she made sure to detail out every hour/half hour. She checked in with us throughout the day, but at all the right times. We never felt overwhelmed or rushed. We received comments later from guests on how impressed they were with Elise. They took notice to how focused she was on making sure everything was perfect and how hard she was working. I can not say enough good things about Elise. Hire her as your wedding coordinator and don’t think twice about it. I didn’t realize how much we needed her until after we hired her. Do it. It’s the best decision you’ll make!

Robert Reed

Elise was a perfect fit as our wedding coordinator and knocked it out of the park. She is super friendly and professional, and very easy to work with. We started working with her about 3 months before our wedding day, and she jumped right in by identifying all of our outstanding vendors, and matching us with the right people for our unique needs and style. She assisted with pulling together the logistics for the day and communicated with all our vendors leading up to our wedding. She joined us for our second visit to our chosen venue and helped develop an outdoor plan and a backup rain plan for the ceremony. We did a two-night wedding party at a summer camp on the Oregon coast. We (bride and groom) managed things ourselves on Friday night, and what a difference it made to have Elise arrive there Saturday to relieve of us any responsibilities other than walking down the aisle, saying our vows, and partying our faces off. Saturday morning we were able to go for a morning hike, socialize and relax with all our guests while Elise coordinated all our vendors and setup. She got our bar set up and moved furniture all around to ensure the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception had a cozy and community feeling. It was flawless, and I can't imagine it going nearly so smoothly without her there. After the reception, she took charge to transform the dinner room into the dance hall in no time, and she brought desserts around to our guests while we partied late into the night. We highly recommend working with Elise as your wedding coordinator!!

Stephanie Maier

I have worked with Keen Events multiple times and they are always super well organized and helpful. I highly recommend hiring them to help plan your event!

Kelly Kincella

Hiring Elise Handler and Keen Events PDX to plan and execute our wedding was the best decision we made. I hired Elise as a month of coordinator 9 months before my wedding date, but she was involved from the very beginning of our planning process. Leading up to my wedding Elise reached out to me every couple of months and kept track of my progress within Aisle Planner. You get a free account through Elise and this website makes planning a wedding a breeze. The month before she was working with me on almost a daily basis. For brides out there trying to determine if they need a coordinator, budget Elise into your overall budget. The last thing you want on your wedding day is to be stressed about whether or not decor was put out or if your flowers made it to the venue. Let Elise handle it. You worry about enjoying your special day.

Natalie Ryman

It has taken me a little over two weeks to try to find the words to say about Elise, the owner of Keen Events PDX--in all reality, there are no words to describe how utterly amazing she is. On September 22 I married the love of my life, and the day was made even more perfect because of Elise. Keen Events PDX was one of the best decisions that we made when planning our wedding. I could not have imagined how beautifully it would all turn out, and that was largely due to Elise's execution. Her attention to detail, compassion, and ability to make friends with anyone (while maintaining a professional attitude) is the perfect combination for an outstanding wedding planner. She was my second pair of eyes, had endless ideas to suggest and advice to give, and was our biggest supporter. Elise exceeded all of our expectations by far, and we could not recommend Keen Events PDX more. We were in such good hands during the planning process and on the day of the wedding, and we can't thank you enough for all that you did for us (including being the best cheerleader!). Look no further for the BEST wedding planner/designer/and coordinator in Portland. We love you!

Donna Ramos

Elise is a blessing in my life, an answered prayer. I didn't know if I needed a wedding coordinator until I saw what a wedding coordinator did for my sister's wedding. I immediately saw the benefits of a wedding coordinator and contacted a bunch of wedding coordinators. Elise was THE FIRST to respond. That shows a lot about her willingness to help every bride in need. I hired her immediately after our initial phone interview because of how comfortable she made me feel about wedding planning and her contagious smile that I felt through the phone. As soon as we hung up from our initial interview, Elise immediately (within seconds) sent me checklist, vision boards, and contact information for possible vendors. She got right to work! Throughout the process, Elise was the "Monica from Friends" in my life (exactly what I needed for my Joey and Pheobe from Friends personality). She would also send me random "how are you texts" and see if there is anything else that can make my wedding stress-free. She always made me smile and put my mind at ease. At times I would tear because her "how are you "texts would make me tear because it ALWAYS came at the right time and felt like she really cared about me as a person. A trusted friend. The day of my wedding felt like a dream. She made sure all of my family and friends were having a great time, that all of my set-up was on schedule and that my fiance and I had EVERYTHING we wanted for our wedding. My family wanted to adopt her! Honestly, she made my dream wedding come true and more. My husband and I still talk about her and miss her EVERYDAY. We are secretly thinking about renewing our vows, just so we can have Elise plan our next big day. Elise is THE BEST investment for your wedding! We still keep in touch and she is no longer my wedding planner, but a part of my family. There is no one like her.

KW Productions

We had the pleasure of working alongside Elise this last week for a wedding. I could go on and on about how smoothly the day went. You know someone is doing their job right when you don’t notice anything. Nothing getting hung up on, nothing going wrong, everything in its place. But what I really want to touch on is HOW she worked and it was in a way that is rare and so refreshing to see. Elise always had a smile on her face, she was enjoying what she was doing and doing it with such a serving heart. Not only was she making sure we knew what was happening next and making sure we ate that was one thing, but coming up to us with open water bottles ready to give us a drink herself is a whole other level. She genuinely cared about the event running smoothly on all faucets down to caring for all the people that were contributing in making the event what it was. Some things people may not realize is when you have a coordinator that cares enough to communicate consistently with your vendors about things about to happen, the couple is getting a better experience in more ways than one. Their film is now filled with as many moments in their entirety because the videographers were fully prepared for them to happen. Not only is Elise good at her job, something you most definitely want in a coordinator, she cares, and she has a heart for what she does. This is something so so valuable and so hard to find. We 100% recommend her for any and all of your event needs.

Kim Jeyaraj

I've had the privilege to work with Elise who is the most sweetest and down to earth person in the biz. She is warm, friendly, cheers you on and believes in you. It is so great that she is Oregon's first green certified wedding planner, this is perfect for everyone whether you are a green conscious bride or not, she will take care of ya!

Rick Myers

I am writing on behalf of Company Tonight Catering, a Portland based full- service catering company specializing in weddings and DJ's. Over the last 12 years we've worked with dozens of event planners and recognized the requirements and skills that embody a successful event planner. That said, our 5 star rating of Keen Events is well deserved. Having worked with Keen Events 3 times I've come to know Elise H, owner of Keen Events, for her hard working, roll up your sleeves, and get the job done approach. She's organized, communicates well, follows through, fixes problems, and works well under pressure. So, If it's fair to say that successful event planners are required to wear different hats and utilize a variety of skills in oder to meet their client's needs, then Keen Events are all about Hats.

Megan DeVous

We've had the pleasure of working with Elise for over a year now. My (now husband) hired her to help with his big proposal last June (2018) and we quickly hired her as our wedding coordinator for the big day! She has been nothing short of amazing since that day. She was my go-to for everything wedding related, and then quickly became my go-to for everything else too, she has become a great friend and we're lucky to have found her! On the big day, we would have been lost without her as the venue coordinator was unable to perform her duties. With that mess, she still managed to make our day absolutely perfect with her focus on us! For any bride, any budget, any day, Elise is your girl for the job. She will be your best wedding related expense, I can promise you that!

Erin Colleen

As a fellow wedding professional, the team at Keen Events is one of my favorites to work with. Your event will be in great hands!