Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Lydon.
Michelle purchased the business from her father and became the owner of Lydon Funeral Home. At this time, she decided to take a risk and change the name of the funeral home to Lydon Chapel. This new name brought new meaning to her business, rather than being just a funeral home Michelle transitioned her business into a spiritual chapel not only for funerals but also for weddings.
Being a Justice of the Peace for over 2000 weddings and being a funeral director for over 25 years, over 100 cases a year, Michelle finds balance in not only helping people in the remembrance process of their loved ones but also sharing in the celebration of joining two people together on their wedding day.
Intriguingly enough our staff here at Lydon Chapel was casted to do a reality TV show to be called “Till Death Do Us Part” under the provisions of Powderhouse Productions. The show was pitched to networks including but not limited to, A&E, WE, LIFETIME, and OWN. Unfortunately, it was not picked up but the process of making a show definitely gave us some insight on how different our business really is.
I think one of the most fascinating events we coordinate here at Lydon Chapel is our “Drive-Thru” weddings. We asked ourselves why travel all the way to Las Vegas to elope when you can get the same services here on the east coast. So, if it isn’t enough that people are totally blown away by our mixture of the funeral and wedding industries, imagine their faces when we fill them in on our “Drive-Thru” services.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Even though churches and other religious entities usually do both funerals and weddings, Michelle was unsure of how the public would take to the addition of weddings to our business. Luckily for Michelle when she first started the business it was the same time that same gender weddings were allowed in MA so business boomed from the beginning.
Even though people are dying and getting married every day, we still hit the lull time of slow business. Different seasons can affect both of our main industries. Summers are busy with weddings and flu seasons can be busy with death.
We also have had to adapt to the culture change in our city. The Asian community in our city has grown rapidly over past years and it was important that we continued to adapt to these cultures and offer their traditions so they feel more at home and at peace with their loved one’s death.
Michelle has also just started doing something new in the funeral industry where she has started to partner up with local churches so that families can actually hold visiting hours at the church. The church usually allows the body to stay at the alter overnight which can be quite an honor for someone who is very religious.
Lydon Chapel – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
On top of the fact we do both weddings and funerals at our establishment we are also a bit different as we have all women actually running the business. The funeral home industry used to be majority male run and own however Michelle and her staff have been complimented many times on how different of a service we offer as females. Maybe it is the emotional side that is easier for females but my Grandfather and old owner of the business swears that a woman can do this job much better than a male.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is doing what you love to do, which for us is taking care of families during their greatest time of need, whether that be a funeral or a wedding.
Pricing:
- We offer weddings like drive-thrus priced at $100 up to full customized ceremonies around $400
- Offer direct cremation packages at the chapel for as low as $1,749.00
Contact Info:
- Address: 644 Hancock St.
Quincy, MA 02170 - Website: www.LydonChapelforfunerals.com and www.JusticeLydon.com
- Phone: 617-472-7423
- Email: lydonchapelforfunerals@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lydon-Chapel-for-Weddings-205237496185219/ and https://www.facebook.com/Lydon-Chapel-for-Funerals-206820112688611/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lydon-chapel-for-funerals-quincy and https://www.yelp.com/biz/justice-of-the-peace-michelle-lydon-quincy
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