Our Wedding Chapel had an article from the Woodburn Independent.
By Brett Tallman
The open house will feature local photographers, wedding planners, DJs, florists and pastors, and it will give the owners a chance to demonstrate what the Hubbard Chapel now offers to the surrounding community.
Randy Durig, of Wilsonville, and Janie Woodward, of Silverton, are already involved in an array of different businesses throughout the Willamette Valley.
“Financial services, storage units — it’s diverse,” Woodward said.
The Hubbard Chapel, however, will be the first event center that they own and operate.
Since purchasing the chapel Nov. 1, the partners have made the building available for weddings, birthday parties, baptisms, quinceañeras and anything else that, as their motto says, “celebrates life.”
Their primary goal is to provide an inexpensive place to house those kinds of festivities.
“We understand in the last few years that things have been tough,” Woodward said. “So we want to make it an affordable place for families to make memories. By keeping it local and not too fancy, we can have beautiful events at a reasonable price.”
Woodward says that last summer they had been looking for a space to open just such a business when they heard the Hubbard Chapel was on the market.
“It was a perfect match between the church selling and us purchasing,” she said.
After a few months of deliberation, the United Church of Christ officially sold the chapel on Nov. 1.
Though the United Church of Christ no longer owns the building, they will continue to meet in the Hubbard Chapel every Sunday. Furthermore, the church will also continue to use it for its own events.
“We have an agreement that they may continue to use the building,” she said. “We’re working closely with them. We welcome and accommodate that. We’re hoping that will be an ongoing relationship throughout the years.”
The partners intend to renovate the church, while maintaining and reviving some of its historic aspects. For example, Woodward and Durig plan to open up the now-covered bell tower as it would have been when it was first built.
The Hubbard Chapel has been a focal point of the community nearly as long as the town itself has existed. It has served the community in many aspects, but service has always been at the forefront.
“We have similar goals,” Woodward said. “We want to serve the community so we always have that central place to bring family together to make memories.”
