Monday, May 11, 2015

How to Plan a Memorial Service for a Loved One

A memorial service for a loved one is celebrated right after the funeral and this celebration is to honor and remember the life and memory of the deceased. Memorial services must be planned well in advance and should be scheduled at a certain date and time wherein the family members and friends are available in order to celebrate the deceased person's life. So here's how to plan a memorial service.


Set the Date and Time

Memorial services must be planned well in accordance to the schedule of the family members and friends who need to travel from other countries and from those who are out of town. It is a good idea to set a date that is close enough for the funeral event that visiting friends and family will be able to attend.

Choose a Location

The location is also another important thing to consider when planning a memorial service. It should be huge enough to be able to accommodate all the people that you plan to invite. Find out how many chairs you will need for the event, including the foods and the arrangement. It is also important to consider whether you want a religious or non religious memorial service.  If the deceased person is Catholic, then a Catholic memorial service should be planned.

Send out Invitations

Come up with a list of friends that you plan on inviting for the memorial service and then prepare the invitations. Make sure that your list will include all of the deceased person's friends and family members. You can choose to create the invitations on your own and you can refer online for the template. You may also purchase printable memorial programs as invitations.

Ask Ideas from Friends and Family

It is also a good idea to ask advice and ideas from friends and family members for the memorial service. The people who personally know the deceased person should be able to give you ideas on his or her favorite color and songs and other mementos that you can use for the memorial service.

Assign Speakers

The most important component of the memorial service is to have some guest speakers who can share their personal perspectives about the deceased person's life and legacy that were left behind. So get in touch with those individuals that you want to be the speaker for the service and make sure that you call them ahead of time so they can include the event on their schedule. It is also a good idea to ask them if there are any resources that they might need such as a screen, microphone, etc.

Ask Help if Needed

It is definitely not easy to plan a memorial service for a loved one especially if the deceased is a family member, friend or your significant other. If you are having trouble with the bereavement process because of the death and you don’t know anything about how to plan a memorial service program, then you may want to ask help from another person or company in preparation of the program.



4 comments:

  1. Ashley, this is just the information I was looking for about planning a funeral. My Grandpa is quite sick right now and the family is preparing for a worse case scenario. The tip about asking for help from others seems like a good idea. I will have to keep this information in mind.
    Emily Smith | http://keenanfuneralhomes.com/services/

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  3. My grandpa is very sick right now, and it doesn't look like he has much time left. My family is starting to plan his funeral, but since this is our first one, we don't really know what things to look for. So I really appreciate you talking about certain things that need to be done when planning a funeral. I didn't even think about sending out invitations. I will make sure I talk to my parents about that, and about all the other tips you talked about. Thanks a ton for the help. http://www.diponziofh.com/Funeral_Planning_665130.html

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  4. Planning a funeral is hard because you are trying to cope with the death of a loved one and make sure that they are being honored and remembered properly. I think this is why I appreciate your suggestion to ask help. Relieving the stress of having to cope with the loss of a loved one is very easily relieved when somebody who knows how to plan a memorial service helps out and makes sure that all the loose ends and details are taken care of. Thanks for the insights on this difficult situation! http://www.kainmurphy.com

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