How To Plan a Funeral

A funeral is planned under great emotional distress in the vast majority of cases. When faced with making funeral arrangements for a loved one, it is often best to work through the steps systematically to avoid becoming too emotionally involved in any single detail.

Read Any Wishes of the Departed

It may very well be that your loved one made her own funeral arrangements or at least part of them. If she’s already commissioned matching granite monuments and picked out a casket at the local funeral parlor, you’ll have less work to do in that department. Likewise, it is best to know immediately if she’s requested burial or cremation as your services and planning will differ considerably.

Speak to the Mortician or Funeral Director

A knowledgeable funeral director will know how to handle the physical details of the departed burial or cremation. This will involve having the body released to his care, processing it for burial or cremation and helping to make arrangements for interment or other transport as required. A funeral director can also put you in touch with a cemetery or memorial area where cremation urns are interred if the cemetery is not affiliated with the funeral parlor.

Select a Casket, Urn and Location for Interment

While your loved one’s is safe in the care of the funeral director and mortician on his staff, you will need to make other necessary selections including the casket for a burial and the location for the interment if the departed as not already arranged this previously. If you are planning a cremation, a cremation urn will be necessary rather than a coffin, but you’ll likely need a location for storage as well, perhaps in a memorial unless you plan to bring the ashes home or to another location.

Speak to a Minister or Officiate

Speak to a minister or other officiate about your plans for a memorial service and the burial. He will be knowledgeable in the procedures and be able to help you make decisions including the style of service and the components of it.

Manage Details

Once the larger jobs have been entrusted to the care of professionals, have only to manage the smaller details of the job including any special program inserts, pictures for the memorial or a special music or media presentation.

Easy Step By Step

• Review the wishes of the departed
• Make arrangements with a funeral director
• Select a casket or urn
• Make arrangements for a burial
• Speak to a minister about a memorial service
• Manage details of the funeral

Warnings, Advice, and Suggestions

Be careful to not become so consumed with details that you don’t allow yourself time to grieve. Others want to help you during this challenging time, so let them.

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