Tips on Planning for a Funeral for the First Time

Planning for a funeral for the first time can be overwhelming. Because of the grief and the shock that you will feel when a loved one passes away, your mind may become blank and you won’t be able to do all the things that you need to do to be able to organize a funeral like send out death announcement cards.

But by preparing ahead and by being informed, you will be able to get through this saddening and mind-numbing experience and do the tasks that need to be done like come up with memorial cards for funeral.

Know What Will Happen and What You Should Do

Knowing what will happen in case of a death of a loved one will enable you to prepare for the most stressful and saddest part, the funeral preparations. Because you need to arrange the funeral, you might feel that you are being crushed between your want to pay respects to your deceased loved one and your want to stay at home with your family to grieve. And although it may sound harsh, you need to set your grievance aside and plan for the funeral first.

Planning the funeral will enable the family, friends and acquaintances of the deceased to give meaning to the life of the deceased. Thus, this should be arranged first.

• Select a Funeral Home

Once the death of a loved one has been announced by a physician or a person who attends to the deceased, a death certificate will be filled and a funeral home should be chosen. If you don’t know which funeral home to choose, you can ask your family and friends or find one in the Yellow Pages or online.

• Announce the Death to Family and Friends

You can phone family and friends who live nearby. But for those who are distant, you should send death notice cards and funeral programme cards so that they will be able to know about the death of your loved one. This will also help your relatives and friends to know when and where the funeral will be held.

Sending memorial cards for a funeral will also enable your distant relatives to have something to keep to remind them of your loved one.

There are free templates that you can download online. And if you want them to be easy to edit and download, you might want to look for funeral templates and death notice templates.

• Get Ready for the Burial, Funeral and Family Meetings

After everything has been arranged, the time for the burial and the funeral will come next. You should be prepared to face other people who want to pay respects to your deceased loved one. Although you might want to just be in a place where you can mourn alone, it would be necessary to be there to appreciate the presence of your family and friends.

Being with other people who want to offer help and support will help with your grief so do not turn away from them. This will be quite a helpful gathering so that you can recover from a depressing event since your loved one has passed away.

Also Read:

How to Save Money on a Funeral Service
Printable Funeral Templates for Microsoft Word
Ideas for Funeral Program Templates

How to Save Money on a Funeral Service

A lot of people are looking for ways on how to save money on a funeral and for good reason. After all, a funeral is very expensive. Of course, funeral costs vary. But at the end of the day, it’s still very expensive. In fact, it’s not unusual for a family to spend $6000-$7000 for a funeral. However, you can’t do anything about it since death is inevitable. You’ll need to spend on a funeral but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t find tips on how to save money on a funeral.

What Makes Funerals Expensive?

It’s simple. You need to buy and pay for a lot of things in a funeral and these things add up. Of course, a casket is very expensive. In addition, there are a lot of services involved like embalming and the likes. With the things that need to be done, a lot of people are overwhelmed so they end up hiring a funeral director, not realizing that doing so makes funerals expensive.

Now, this is not to say that funeral directors are worthless. Don’t disregard them if you’re looking for ways on how to save money on a funeral. You just need to follow some tips on how to save money on funeral expenses.

Tips on How to Save Money on Funeral Costs

Follow these tips and save a lot of money on funeral expenses:

• Don’t go for “all in one solutions”.

A lot of funeral parlors and funeral directors offer all in one solutions which are tempting for people who are looking to save themselves some time and effort when planning for a funeral. As mentioned, funeral directors are very important as well since they can help you handle the more important things like the casket and the embalming procedure. However, there are things included in their all in one solution that you can do yourself and this can help you since you’re looking for ways on how to save money on a funeral.

For starters, it’s better that you do the funeral service announcement yourself. After all, it’s just a matter of putting up an obituary and notifying family members and friends. You can also check out funeral obituary card templates online that you can simply print out. These can also be known as funeral bulletin cards, memorial order of service cards, and funeral service invitations.This way, you can pick out a good design, unlike the generic designs offered by funeral parlors and directors.

Best of all, you can find a free sample printable funeral order of service card template at FuneralPamphlets.com , as well as other themed funeral templates online. However, don’t be afraid to pay for them since they’re inexpensive anyway and pre-formatted to save you time.

Themed Funeral Program Templates

• Plan ahead.

A lot of people fall for the expensive all in one solution because they’re running out of time. This is why it’s recommended that you plan ahead even if there’s no death yet in the family. Learn how to save money on funeral expenses as early as now so you’ll avoid overspending for a funeral in the future.

But it’s not too late even if somebody already died in your family. You just need to overcome your grief for the meantime and plan accordingly. This way, you won’t cram later on because cramming usually leads to added expenses.

• Make do with non-essential costs.

There are things that you can do without especially since you’re looking for ways on how to save money on a funeral. For example, there’s no need to hire additional limousines. Family members and friends will be more than happy to lend or use their cars. You can also save money on catering costs. You can just ask some of your family members to prepare the food at home.

• Consider cremation.

You can save a lot of money by choosing cremation over a burial or an entombment. Of course, this is provided that the deceased has made it known in the past that cremation is okay. This is a decision that can be made by the immediate family.

• Have the funeral at home.

You can save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on funeral costs by having the funeral at home. As an added benefit, it gives the family a better way to grieve since they’re right there at home. Just make sure to include in the funeral service invitation that the funeral will be held at home.

Now that you know how to save money on a funeral, you can save a lot of money without sacrificing your respects to the deceased.

Related Reads:

Printable Funeral Obituary Templates for Microsoft Word
A Complete Memorial Service Guide
How to Make a Memorial Service Program Template

How to Plan Funeral Arrangements

Planning a funeral service is hard because of two things. First of all, you have a lot of things to take care of, and it doesn’t help that most people are not prepared for the passing of a loved one so they’re overwhelmed as to how to start. Second of all, planning a memorial service is tough because you’re still reeling from the loss and you want to mourn. However, you need to delay the mourning process and learn how to plan funeral arrangements.

It’s a good idea for you to learn how to arrange a funeral service even if you don’t need to arrange one right now. This way, you’ll be prepared for the inevitable of losing a loved one. But if you already lost one right now and you’re tasked to plan a funeral service, you don’t have to worry because it’s not too late.

Things that You Need

Before learning how to plan funeral arrangements, you have to know the things that you need. Here are the things you need:

• A list of funeral homes in your area
• Someone to conduct the service
• Funeral announcement (usually done with an obituary, funeral announcement cards and word of mouth)
• Funeral bulletin cards
• Funeral order of service
• Family members to help you with the arrangements for funerals
• List of legal requirements
• The lawyer of the deceased
• Funeral director

How to Arrange a Funeral Service

Here is the step by step guide on planning a funeral service:

1. Report the death.

You need to notify the authorities if you haven’t done so already. You should also start complying with the legal requirements to take care of things like the death certificate.

2. Notify family members and friends.

They surely want to be notified of the death, especially since most of them would love to come and pay their respects. Contact the closest family members and friends directly. Also, make a funeral announcement.

3. Contact the lawyer of the deceased.

The deceased may have his/her wishes when it comes to the memorial order of service and the funeral itself. This is where you’ll know whether there’ll be a cremation, a burial or entombment.

4. Contact a funeral director.

There’s a good chance that this will be your first time to make arrangements for funerals. They can help you with the more important things of the funeral like the casket, embalming, setting up of the venue for the wake, etc.

5. Prepare all the things needed.

Refer to the list above and make sure that you have them. At the very least, make sure that you have the preparations for them. Take this time to make a plan of the things that you can do while the funeral director handles the rest.

Here are the things that you should do:

a.       Issue a funeral service announcement.

You can easily find a funeral service announcement template online that you can use as a pattern.

b.      Send out funeral service invitations.

Family members and friends would love to attend the service, and they need to know the details. Include all important details like the date, time and place of the service so that they can make the necessary travel arrangements.

c.       Print out funeral memorial cards.

This is something that you’ll hand out at the service. A funeral memorial card is a good way to remember the deceased and those paying respects will appreciate it.

d.      Take care of the memorial order of service card.

You need a funeral order of service card in order to have an organized service. Talk to the lawyer of the deceased just in case the deceased had wishes. There are lots of memorial order of service templates that you can find online.  You can simply choose among them and follow the chosen template.

Of course, you should decide who will deliver the eulogies. In addition, choose 4-6 men as pallbearers. Make sure to inform them. You should also choose who will lead the service.

Now that you know how to plan funeral arrangements, it’s time for you to get started. Find it in yourself to overcome the grief and pay your respects to the deceased one last time by planning a memorial service that you and your family can be proud of.

Related Reads:
Printable Funeral Service Templates - Cards

How to Save Money on a Funeral Service

Using the Internet to Plan for a Funeral