MOCA - Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art Reviews

When my husband and I were looking for a wedding venue, we wanted something unique. The VA MOCA met all the expectations for a one of a kind wedding venue that we could have wished for. The marvelous ficus lighted trees, the awe inspiring Dale Chihuly chandelier, and the rotating art exhibition make for a wedding venue that stands out from the rest. Kay Barbini was the most warm, welcoming and accommodating event manager that we met with (and we looked a LOT of venues). Even when met with rain challenges late the day of, Kay and the MOCA seamlessly adapted to our new plans for the wedding and delivered a beautiful space that marveled our guests from beginning to end. The MOCA has everything we needed in a wedding venue and we cannot recommend it more!

Don't think twice about booking MOCA as your wedding venue! This was by far the perfect place to share this special day with our family and friends. Our guest are still talking about how beautiful the facility and grounds are weeks after our wedding. Kay Barbini was the absolute best to work with. I love how she took the time to get to know us and understand what we were looking for in a venue! The ABSOLUTE best place ever! ❤️

The MOCA was such a beautiful venue for our wedding and exceeded any and all expectations! Kay was great to work with and made everything stress free for my husband and I!

The minute we walked into the MOCA, we knew we wanted to get married there! We loved the high ceilings of the atrium, the real trees that brought nature inside, and the romantic vibe we knew we could create. We chose to have our ceremony and reception in the Atrium and used the Rodriguez Room for our cocktail hour. The space was perfect and our guests were in awe of the way the Atrium could change from beautiful ceremony to romantic and elegant reception venue!

Kay was very helpful and allowed us multiple visits to ensure all of our vendors were on the same page. All of the MOCA staff were nice and pleasant and made for a smooth event planning process. The kitchen provided the catering team with space, the auditorium stage was perfect for staging flowers and tables, the parking accommodating our large group of 150 guests, and the location was close to the beach which our out of town guests loved. We would highly recommend this venue!

I am so glad we had our reception at MOCA! When I was looking at venues, we were not sure whether we would be able to get married in church or not, due to our tight timeline before my husband deployed. This was the only venue we looked at that I could see myself getting married at (and we looked at probably 15 venues!) We ended up getting married in church and having our reception here, but it's a beautiful venue for a ceremony as well! Kay was so helpful and flexible with us - we probably bugged her with every possible wedding question and she was gracious, personable and helpful throughout the entire process. I have had so many guests comment on how beautiful the venue was. We did our cocktail hour in the Rodriguez Room (it was so pretty with all of the windows!) and then dinner and reception in the main room (with the lighted trees). I really loved how every room had natural light and as the sun set and it got dark, it perfectly set the tone as the party started! There is a lot of flexibility with how you want to set everything up since there are technically 3 rooms available to you (Rodriguez Room, the theater/stage room and the main room). They have tables and chairs that are included with the venue, you can bring in your own alcohol and choose your own caterer, there is a TV that you can use for a slideshow and there is built in uplighting in the main room. We didn't need to decorate at all besides the linens and centerpieces. There are also 2 private rooms for the bridal party with bathrooms and mirrors/counters/coat racks, plus the backstage space if you need to stay in hiding before the reception. It never felt cramped, even with almost 200 people in the building. In short, the venue was absolutely beautiful and Kay is very easy to work with!

MOCA offers a great place to have all of your wedding events - and you can truly transform the space into anything you want! We got to have our dogs walk down the aisle with us - which was a definite requirement - and we couldn't have been happier with how our entire event worked out. Kay is very kind and was genuinely excited for us. The staff at MOCA clearly knows what they're doing when it comes to weddings! The one thing I will say is that there are a lot of rules on random things like candles and petals and confetti and sparklers, so if any of those are "must haves" for your wedding day - definitely check in with Kay before you book. You can definitely work around it though!

The MOCA was my dream venue. I didn’t even look anywhere else. It was beautiful and the staff were very accommodating to top it off. Worth the money!

The Museum was an absolutely beautiful venue for our wedding. We got so many compliments on how beautiful everything was. Not to mention it was minutes from the oceanfront which allowed us to take some beautiful pictures on the beach prior to the ceremony. Kay and the security staff were very accommodating, letting us have full access to the entire venue, and even set-up the night before. I highly recommend this as a beautiful wedding venue!

We had our wedding at the MOCA this September and everything about it was perfect. The staff there are so accommodating and flexible. We utilized the Atrium and Rodriguez room and it made for the perfect wedding. It is stunning in person and in pictures and made our wedding day feel like a fairytale.

When my husband proposed, the first thing he said was "We are getting married at the MOCA!". He went to a wedding there before years ago and still thought about it till that day. When we first visited the MOCA, Ms. Kay was so kind and helpful explaining to us what the MOCA can provide for us for our wedding day. The trees in the Atrium was definitely a winner which adds so much romance and does not need much added decor. We booked over a year in advance and Ms. Kay was always a call/email away whenever we had any questions. We had the ceremony and reception in the Atrium (had a room flip) & cocktail hour in the Rodriguez. We even used the theater to show a funny little movie my husband and I made to entertain our guests. Everyone loved the MOCA! Thank you so much Kay for everything! I highly recommend the MOCA!

MOCA is a beautiful reception site for a wedding- our guests couldn't get over the gorgeous main room with lit live trees, the airy and open feeling the sky lights provide, and the general ambiance of the venue. Not only is MOCA a great place to get married, but the staff is incredibly friendly, helpful, and responsive.

MOCA was the most beautiful venue for our daughter's wedding. The wedding was held in the Rodriguez room and the reception in the Atrium. It was an evening event and the lighting in the trees and the blue up-lighting turned the Atrium into a wonderfully beautiful room. Kay Barbini was fabulous to work with and had some great suggestions. A nice bonus was the gallery being open to the guests during the cocktail hour. MOCA provided a magical night for our family as our daughter started her new life. A simply stunning venue!

The Virginia MOCA to the rescue!!! I had a wonderful year of planning of my wedding on a beautiful estate on the Eastern Shore of VA...all outside. Yet, when October came along...so did Hurricane Matthew. My year of planning went down the tubes and I had to re-plan my ENTIRE wedding in 4 days. New city, new venue, new caterer, everything! My mom and I immediately called the MOCA (this was my first choice among Virginia Beach venues) and they miraculously had an opening! Kay at the MOCA was so understanding and was willing to do anything she could do to help. I was there everyday for the following four days trying to piece my dream wedding back together. It was fabulous and I am still getting compliments on how gorgeous it all was!

We met with Irene at MOCA several times earlier this year to discuss our upcoming wedding venue. She was very informative and was happy to show us around and offer suggestions. She was quick to respond to our emails and phone calls, and an absolute delight. We quickly put down the deposit and signed the contract. We love the outdoor feeling indoors...won't have to worry about outdoor weather ruining our special day. Our wedding coordinator and caterer are so excited about working with MOCA, as they have had many weddings there.

If you are willing to rent a beautiful venue and have amazing wedding pictures, this is your place but you have a lot of work ahead of you to fill the empty room for your dream wedding. It is well worth it! Irene is the best!

MOCA was a beautiful venue for our wedding. It was classy and eligent. They were very easy to work with and helpful in planning.

Irene was a delight to work with! She was flexible with our time and even gave us some fabric to have during our wedding. She was available whenever we called and responded back to emails quickly. Thank You Irene!

The perfect wedding venue, what else is there to say. We visited around 10 potential wedding venues, and we knew MOCA would be our venue the second we saw it. Irene at MOCA is so sweet, helpful, and has great suggestions as to vendors and ways to save money. The venue itself is so romantic, and my favorite part about it is that each room brings the outside in. Our ceremony took place in the Rodriguez Pavilion with the beautiful greenery visible through the floor to ceiling windows, and the cocktail hour and reception were both in the Atrium with the real life trees. We received so many compliments on the venue from our guests, and people are still telling us how great the wedding was, specifically the venue. It's such a special venue and we couldn't be happier with our choice.

Irene was very helpful and easy to keep in contact with. She even helped with ideas for planning! The venue was beautiful!

Irene and the MOCA were great to work with! We had absolutely no problems with them and LOVED their beautiful space. They helped make my wedding dreams come true! Highly recommended to anyone, only issue is having to find all your own vendors to use in their facility, but they give you a HUGE list of vendors to help you choose.

I seriously do not even know where to begin! Virginia Wedding by Primo Events of made our wedding dreams come true! No words will do justice to appropriately convey our love for Ron Form and his amazing team of vendors. From the moment we first contacted Ron about his services, I truly felt as that our wedding would be his top priority. You could tell his enthusiasm and knowledge would bring to life the ideas we had, and that our dream wedding would come true. We picked Moca for our wedding ceremony & reception party. Irene reserved the venue was great to work with and she gave us a long list of wedding vendors to select from.

We attempted to contact all the vendors but it was an exhausting task to research all these people so we decided to find one person who can do this for us. It was especially crucial in our situation being that we were planning our wedding from Sandiego and moving to Virginia.

Ultimately, I spent more time communicating with Ron about the wedding than anyone. To have someone with you every step of the way and know every detail of the biggest day of your life is a true blessing. I can’t even explain the time, efforts, & dedication that Ron put forth during our wedding weekend. Knowing he was present, there wasn’t one that thing that I had to worry about. A very special thanks to these wonderful people who made our wedding possible. Our caterer was chef Elsa and her food was so delicious. Mrs. Shawn femia is a talented photographer as our photos were surreal and she let us keep everything. DJ chuck was so much fun and he got my grandma to dance which is almost impossible.lol. Tawania our florist made the most unique cascading bridal bouquet for me and the bridesmaids flowers and everthing looked gorgeoues.

From the rehearsal, to the morning of, the afternoon ceremony, cocktail hour, and then reception, he had everyone and everything completely under control. Our weding turned out beautifully thanks to Ron and his vendors.

Gorgeous venue that gives you an outdoor feeling too so you get the best of both worlds! You also can bring in your own vendors, which was huge for me!

We had an ever so elegant and unique wedding on May 27, 2012 at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Virginia Beach. It is a beautiful venue that offers a variety of rooms and ways to create your ceremony and reception. The rental of the spaces was very reasonable and was arranged by the Facility Marketer Irene Tavenner. Ms. Tavenner showed us many options as well as bonuses that you would not otherwise get at other venues. The bonuses included the garden sculptures outside the facility, our guest being able to tour the Andy Warhol Exhibit, the use of a grand piano, the Rodriguez Pavilion which showcases a sparkling 16-foot Dale Chihuly Chandelier and many other bonuses. Ms. Tavenner also provided us with a healthy list of vendors who have provided services for events at MOCA. Ms. Tavenner and the MOCA staff were always polite, helpful and promptly returned our calls and emails for any concerns we had. If you are looking for a unique wedding venue, if you think outside the box and want to create something of your own this is the place for you!!!

Irene at the Contemporary Art Center was easy to reach and worked with us from beginning to end. They really let our vendors have free reign to transform the space into the wedding of our dreams. This is an excellent location for both a ceremony and reception. This was the only place that we wanted and we weren't disappointed.

Love the Contemporary Arts Center, which I believe they just changed their name to Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. Great space!!! We used them for our cocktail hour and reception, worked very well. Cocktail in the Rodriguez and reception in the Atrium.
Irene was easy to work with and met all needs. The windows and skylight just enhanced the ambiance in the room!!