The Duce Reviews

I'm so grateful that I decided to have my reception at the Duce. I honestly can not say enough positive things about Miranda, the wedding coordinator. She was so helpful, responsive and aways willing to meet at the venue, even on her off days. She alleviated all of my stress by taking care of decorating exactly how I had imagined. The Duce was the perfect place to hold my reception. It provides such a unique, fun atmosphere. All of my guest had a blast! You will not regret your decision to plan your special event at The Duce. Miranda will exceed your expectations and do an amazing job to help you plan your perfect day.

We threw our wedding here, and it was amazing! We worked with Keeley, the events coordinator, who went above and beyond. She made it very easy to coordinate with our vendors, and we were impressed that she remembered all of the details that we discussed to help make everything run smoothly and stress-free on wedding day. The level of person attention that Keeley gave throughout the entire year of planning was more than we could have asked for. Our guests raved about how fantastic the cocktails were, and everyone loved how warm and unique the space was, and how elegant it looked for the event.

One of the reasons that we chose the Duce was for their delicious food and cocktail menu, and they did not disappoint with the quality. The bartenders went out of their way to give amazing service, and really added to the atmosphere. We chose Brandon, who is the house DJ, who did a great job as the MC, and kept the party going.

Overall, we can’t thank the Duce enough for making our wedding day so special!

We chose The Duce because we wanted a casual and fun venue, we did not have a traditional wedding and reception. Jake and Ashley were wonderful to work with , responsive and easy-going. They were accommodating and helpful with all the planning and we were able to contact them by email and in person as often as we needed. The bar manager also accommodated our request for our favorite champagne. DJ Brandon put together a mash up of songs ahead of time for us to practice our choreographed dance with our wedding party. Everything was taken care of for us on our day. The food was awesome, so many compliments from our guests. They also did a lot of extra special touches without us having to ask. We chose The Duce because it was so much more affordable than other venues and a lot less hassle because they do everything there in one place, no need to hire different vendors. We recommend The Duce for your wedding or any event. They are awesome!

We hosted our rehearsal dinner at The Duce. The staff there was wonderful and they helped to plan a relaxed, buffet dinner with some of our favorite dishes from their Air Stream kitchen. Our guests ate, drank and danced the night away and we couldn't have asked for a better atmosphere!

What a fun place to have a wedding! We decided to get married at the Duce because it is one of our favorite places to go to when we are in town. It was a fun and laid back environment. The place has so much character by itself so decor was a breeze. The Duce creates a an epic backdrop for photos. Also, the food and drinks are awesome!

The staff was great to work with. We were planning from out of town, but it was easy to ask questions and receive responses. The coordinators were very open about what they were able to deliver and they were very helpful with my decision making without being pushy. They were very flexible with our plans and scheduling. After months of planning, I felt that all details had been addressed. The servers and bartenders were really cool the day of the wedding and I had a few guests tell me how helpful they had been to them in making sure they were fed and having a great time. Even the little kids had fun stuff to do! People were BUZZING big time the next day about what a great time they had

We held our ceremony and reception at The Duce and we don't regret a thing. The Duce is very laid back venue and the location is unique and FUN. Your guests are sure to make comments like, "This is the coolest wedding I've ever been to!" and ask "How in the heck did you find this place?!" It has a very vintage and popculture-rich feel. You can go all out with your decor or not do much at all because of the amount of decor already present on site. The food is also good. We had sliders and tacos, both of which our guests raved about. The people on staff were awesome the day of the wedding and the coordinators were helpful and knowledgable about the visual aspect of both ceremony and reception.

While there isn't much outside opportunity for pics (although our photographer did a stand up job with what she had) there are loads of cute opportunities inside the building, which by the way is cooled only by fans as they have no ACs. I don't recommend any summer weddings here, especially in the Arizona heat! But our end of October wedding weather was good, albeit a little toasty during the daylight hours.

One word of advice is to be prepared with the valet and make sure you think of EVERY detail because the coordinators aren't very helpful during the actual reception. My bridesmaids helped a lot. While this is a very relaxed venue that lets you fully customize your big day, sometimes I felt they could be a little TOO relaxed. But that's just the control freak in me. :)

We had our reception at the Duce in Oct 2021 and it was honestly a pretty big flop. On the positive side, the food and drinks were good and the sales staff had great customer service (were responsive, acknowledged mistakes, worked with us on COVID protocols, etc.), but these "pros" were overshadowed by some big shortcomings:

- They switched up the DJ on us at the last minute and he was AWFUL. Bad emcee'ing. Mess up our grand entrance. Somehow managed to kill the dance party again and again. The sales staff acknowledged this failure and gave us a pretty big discount, but there's really no amount of money that can fix the bad memories from your wedding.

- The flowers we ordered from the Duce were a disaster. They bouquets arrived with many wilted and damaged flowers. Though this was the "in-house" florist, the Duce said they couldn't give us a discount because we "used" the flowers (i.e threw them out) and the florist wouldn't give them a discount.

- Many small details also fell through the cracks: the dinner they brought for us was cold, the tables set as requested, the room was WAY too hot when we showed up, etc.) They also agreed to purchase some decorations for us, but I don't think it actually happened. After the fact, they couldn't provide any documentation that the $500 we gave them for table flowers were actually spent on flowers.

Ultimately, I think what happened was the Duce was overwhelmed with the amount of events they had going on and ours sort of fell flat. There was a lot of back and forth over email afterwards. I'm sure the management will say they did everything they could and went above and beyond to make things right. I disagree.

My advice if you choose to book here:
1. You won't be able to trust the Duce to handle the details. Make sure you are very explicit about what you want and double / triple confirm what you want.

2. Hire your own event coordinator. They have one on staff who they market as "your wedding coordinator" covered under the venue fee, but you're going to want someone not from the venue to make sure they do things right. The Duce also (they told me after already booking with them) hasn't done that many weddings, so you can't rely on their experience.

3. Don't use their in-house florist.

4. Tell them up front you want receipts for any extra "goods" they purchase on your behalf.