Linked sits down with Ashland Gardens Wedding Chapel and gets their take on incorporating Mom into the wedding. 

Spring has sprung!   


Flowers begin to open their winter-weary eyes, the weather becomes bearable (if occasionally tornadic) and the birds and bees start doing their thing. Yes, it’s the season of love.  In fact, it has become difficult to scroll through a Facebook or Instagram newsfeed without noticing the increasing engagements of friends, frenemies and family.  


The months deemed as wedding season (June and September are peak price-wise) are on the horizon, so the months of April and May are usually filled with the flurry of wedding planning. What’s more, this planning extravaganza dovetails with another yearly commitment people go bananas over—Mother’s Day.  

At Linked we’re all about being intentionally different, so we thought why not combine the hustle and bustle of wedding planning with the appreciation marathon of Mother’s Day?  


It’s important to find ways to involve both the Mother of the Bride (MOB) and the Mother of the Groom (MOG) in the wedding process which is why we’ve partnered with the experts at local wedding venue, Ashland Gardens Wedding Chapel, to provide 5 ways MOB and MOG can languish in the love-filled festivities. Our friends at Ashland Gardens Wedding Chapel can provide the perfect atmosphere for an intimate ceremony or large event—they have two different chapels, an outdoor and indoor garden and a reception hall. They also are capable of handling every element of the wedding from the seating to the catering to the cake.  They seemed like a great choice for giving us practical advice for incorporating your mommy(s) dearest.  


3 Ways the MOB and MOG can Help the Bride

  1. Remember that it’s your daughter’s/daughter-in-law’s special day—let her enjoy it. Sometimes family drama or the emotion involved in giving up your lovely daughter (or son) can stack up, and before you know it there’s an all out melt down at the rehearsal dinner. It is important to remember that no matter how much you despise your great uncle, keeping the bride blissfully unaware of any turmoil is always the best bet. Hopefully, this day only happens once! 
  2. Select a facility that is all-inclusive. This simple act will save the MOB and MOG major time and energy, because let’s be honest, no matter how great Aunt Betty is at making cookies, asking her to make 40 dozen for the big day will most likely result in one of the moms driving hurriedly to Walmart to buy the 20 she couldn’t make. All-inclusive venues allow you to personalize without the hassle of covering everything from the forks to the tablecloths to the chairs. We call that a MOB/MOG win-win.  
  3. Give the couple breathing room to make the decisions that they want. Yes, things are different now when it comes to weddings. It’s a time of Pinterest and photo booths and personalized everything, which can be a little shocking to those whose weddings consisted of vows, nuts and homemade mints. The thing is, though, as long as the happy couple aren’t breaking the bank, let them be. It doesn’t matter if you think the colors they chose look like a Ringling Brothers’ Circus—it’s their day and that is their cross to bear.  

2 Ways the Bride can Include the MOB and MOG

  1. Weddings can be tough; they’re filled with hundreds of tiny details and decorations. Why not take advantage of four extra hands and have a day where you, your mom and your future husband’s mom tackle some of those tedious wedding tasks? Extra points if you include music and snacks, making it a real girls night in. 
  2. A picture is worth a thousand words, and on your wedding day those photos can speak when you are bombarded with family, friends and wedding coordinators.  Adding photos from both your mother’s side and your mother-in-law’s side of the family as decoration could be a sweet, simple (and cheap!) way to show you care.  

However you decide to include those you love in your wedding, make sure you’re mindful of the process. No one cares if the bouquet doesn’t get caught or the minister stumbles over his or her words—what matters is that the day is filled with a whole lot of love and a good dose of happily ever after.