About Us

Jon is a retired Navy submariner (20 years) and Janet operated a state registered at home childcare center (15 years). Wedding Central was created in 2005 and was originally established as a home based business selling wedding and party supplies on ebay. We were married that year and decided there needed to be one store where folks could find everything for a wedding or party event. After operating for several months and party supplies starting to fill not only our spare bedroom and several other rooms, we decided a larger location would be a great idea. We expanded and joined the ranks of the local event planning and party supplies companies and got a brick and mortar store.

Wedding Central moved into a small space in the Jefferson Flea Market selling wedding supplies, gowns, and accessories. A couple months later we took out a wall and expanded that location. Approximately nine months later, again decided we needed to expand. Wedding Central moved to 12480C Warwick Boulevard in Newport News. In September of 2009, Wedding Central changed its' name to Event Central LLC, simply because we did then and do now...more than just weddings. We were in this location for 5 years and realized we needed a larger location (again) and wanted to add an event hall to our rental decor services offered in our company.
​
We pinched our pennies (a lot) and was able to save enough money to put down on our own buildings. We moved into the old food bank buildings at 9912 Hosier Street, Newport News, which provided us room to grow over the coming years. Event Central went from that 1400 square foot showroom to 20,000 square feet. Our current location is awesome. It was a scary leap, but well worth it.
 

​Our current location took a lot of work over the years like taking out freezer units, blocking up doorways, buildings offices, repairing and replacing roofs, rewiring, replacing doors, lots of new drywall, exterior painting, and now (1/2022) new carpet and interior painting.

Event Central's current location includes an event hall, lounge, kitchen, wedding chapel, social hour area, dressing rooms, and other small business owners offering wedding and event related products and services. Our goal is to make Event Central LLC the ultimate in a one-stop event shopping experience for everyone. And as we have always been.. a LGBTQ+ friendly wedding and party venue in Newport News, VA.

Now fast forward those 15 years, Janet's elderly dad needs more care at home and we needed to free up time for this task. He lives with us. We decided the best way to do this was to sell the decor rental inventory and concentrate on just owning/managing the property, building, and event hall. And we did just that. On January 1st, 2022, we moved on to the next chapter in our life without the responsibility of doing decor rentals. On January 1, 2024, we will then be closing our wedding chapel. The event hall will continue to be available as our calendar shows.

We would like to thank our clients for their business and trusting Event Central LLC with their wedding and special events. Without our clients, we could not have grown and been successful in making client's dreams come true through decorating, our wedding chapel, and event hall. Here is to many more years of helping others put their creative side to life. You can stop looking for "event hall spaces near me", you found us.    #eventCentralva #LoveIsLove

Thanks for reading! It's nice when our customers visit us and tell us they read our story.