Planning the Funeral Ceremony

Jun 28th 2018

When you are making funeral arrangements for a loved one's ceremony, it is always a good idea to communicate any last wishes or your desires for your loved one to the funeral director. They are there to serve you and provide advice and direction about all your available final preparation options. Your funeral director can help you to plan a personalized service that will be meaningful to you and your family and commemorate the life of your loved one.

What makes up a funeral ceremony may vary significantly from person to person. Writing down a list of all the items or things you want to incorporate is a good idea before meeting with your funeral professional. Consider some of these things when composing your list:

Do you want a period of visitation or body viewing before the actual ceremony service?

Do you want an open or closed casket?

Do you want a cremation or traditional burial for the disposition of the body?

If cremated, do you still want a viewing? (you can have the body embalmed and have a viewing and cremated after)

Do you want any type of special music?

Do you want the ceremony held in the funeral chapel or in the actual church place of worship?

Do you want family and friends to participate in the ceremony? If so, how so?

These are some of the decisions you will need to make. Keep in mind however, that funerals do not belong to the funeral director, but is for the family of the deceased. So make your desired known in advance.

Once the funeral service has been arranged, including the decision for body disposition, you will need to make arrangements on establishing a permanent memorial to serve as a focal point for remembrance. There are many options which a funeral director of memorial facility representative can assist you with.

The disposition of cremains is influenced by the type of memorialization desired. Usually, they are placed in some type of permanent receptacle or urn before committed to a final resting place. The container may be:

A place in an indoor or outdoor mausoleum or columbarium

Interred in a family burial plot

Interred in a special urn garden that many cemeteries provide for such purpose

Cremated remains can also be scattered in a cemetery garden especially created for those who have been cremated. Individual whose remains have been scatted in a garden can be identified by name on a special memorial plaque, marker or Book of Remembrance in a building on the cemetery grounds.

You may also scatter the ashes in a designated geographical land, area, or water in accordance with your state laws. If you scatter the ashes, it is recommended that a site also be chosen for a permanent memorial to provide a place to come and visit for those who want to remember and celebrate the life of a loved one.