Finding vendors you can trust for the whole family.
Family-Friendly Events is a curated directory connecting families and event planners with vendors — DJs, photographers, venues, entertainers, and more — who are genuinely committed to making every event welcoming for guests of all ages.
We're in Early Access
Family-Friendly Events is brand new, and we're adding vendors and events every week. Early Access is our founding chapter: the directory is filling in market by market, and you're seeing it as it grows.
Listing your business is free right now. Paid plans with promotional placement and extra features are coming later — and every vendor who joins during Early Access keeps a founding rate when they do. No credit card, no catch, no "free forever" fine print: just free now, and a founding deal locked in for the vendors who show up early.
For families, everything is simply free to use — search the directory, read reviews, and request quotes without an account.
Our story
I’ve planned a lot of family events over the years — birthday parties, school celebrations, community gatherings — and I kept running into the same problem. Finding vendors who truly understand family audiences takes time. A DJ’s website might look great, but does their setup include content filters? Does the photographer know how to work a crowd that includes both toddlers and grandparents? Does the venue have a quiet space for nursing parents?
The answers were always buried, when they existed at all.
Family-Friendly Events exists to surface those answers up front. Every vendor on the site has answered specific questions about how they approach family service — in their own words, on their own profile. Not a checklist. Not a certification. A real explanation, so you can make an informed decision before you ever reach out.
How it works
For families & event planners
Search by vendor category and location. Browse published profiles and read each vendor’s own description of how they serve family audiences. When you find someone you like, send them a quote request directly from their profile — no account required.
Find a vendor →For vendors
Create a free profile in minutes. Tell families how your business approaches family-friendly service — what you do differently, what accommodations you make, what you love about working with family audiences. When your profile is approved, it appears in our public directory and starts showing up in search results for your area.
Create a free profile →Our commitment to quality
- Every profile is reviewed.
- New vendor profiles and significant changes go through a human review before appearing publicly. We’re looking for businesses that are genuinely family-focused — not just anyone who checks a box.
- Vendors speak for themselves.
- We don’t write the family-friendly descriptions for vendors. We ask them to answer specific prompts so you can read their perspective directly. You’re hiring them, not us — you deserve their actual words.
- Moderation is ongoing.
- Users can report any profile, review, or content that seems inaccurate or inappropriate. Our team reviews every report. We take moderation seriously because the families using this directory are trusting us with their events.
The team
Family-Friendly Events is a small, founder-led company based in Virginia. We’re not a VC-backed platform trying to scale to a million vendors overnight. We’re building something we’d want to use ourselves — carefully, one category and market at a time.
Carl Bohman, Founder
I started out as a hobbyist DJ for youth events before I could drive. Back then it was mostly church youth dances where I was given full freedom, but understood well the standards that I was required to abide by. That early training stuck with me in ways I didn’t fully appreciate until years later.
In 2011, I founded Family DJ out of a casual side conversation that turned into a business idea. I was at the first elementary school dance for my eldest daughter, watching the kids run around to music (like all the parents were doing), when I noticed the DJ making choices in the second hour that I wouldn’t have made at a middle school dance, let alone an elementary one. I bumped into a PTA officer and mentioned, almost offhandedly, that I had DJ experience and would be willing to help out if needed. He practically begged me to do the next one.
That surprised me and stuck with me. If it was this hard for a PTA at a school dance to find a DJ they could actually trust with a room full of kids, it was hard for everyone. I spent some time researching the space, considered a lot of names, and landed on Family DJ — because it says exactly what it is, immediately, with no fine print. The number of clients who have told me they were relieved to find me has only confirmed that the name does the work.
Family DJ has been running ever since — over 15 years of events: weddings, community celebrations, school dances, birthday parties, anniversaries, and more. The ones I remember most are the ones where grandparents and toddlers both end up on the dance floor. I kept hearing the same thing from families: “I wish there were more vendors like you.” Family-Friendly Events is the answer to that — something I’ve wanted to build for years, and the natural next step from Family DJ: a directory built on the same principle. Say what you are, prove it, and let families make an informed choice.
I grew up in Northern Virginia and raised my older children there. I later relocated with my wife and our younger children to the Winchester area. When I’m not DJ-ing for other families, you’ll usually find me spending time with my own family, writing computer programs, or volunteering at our church. That’s the thread that runs through all of it — Family DJ, the move to Winchester, this directory. Family, in every sense.
Get in touch
Questions, feedback, or just want to say hello?
- General inquiries: Use the contact form
- Account & vendor support: Use the support form
Family-Friendly Events LLC · Virginia, United States