A Personalized Funeral Service – Let’s make it meaningful together.

A Personalized Funeral Service – Let’s make it meaningful together.

Funerals play a significant role in our families and our community. They allow people to come together and celebrate the life of that most special person. It is an integral part of the grieving process as well.

A personal and special funeral may and can help overcome the pain of loss that we may all be feeling. A special moment or personal touch may elicit the happy memories that we have for the deceased and how important they were in our lives.

Finding unique ways to personalize your loved one’s funeral can be as simple as the memorial displays to the service readings and the meal food afterward. There are many different ways to personalize the funeral for your loved one.

Create a theme to honour your loved one

By deciding on focusing on a few specific elements of your loved one’s life,  youcan create a theme around the funeral service. It can be as easy as decorating the room with hockey jerseys, records or celebrating their love of the great outdoors with a display of a canoe, boots, and fishing poles. If your loved one had a green thumb, bringing in their own flowers with gardening gloves and trowels.

Any of these inclusions help to center the service around your loved ones and who they were and what they were enthusiastic about. The theme can be added to the service cards, the memorial cards, and any other items you wish to share.

Create a Memorial Display

A memorial display is something that celebrates the life of your loved ones. Choosing a few different items to place along side a picture helps share the story of your loved ones live.

 Memorial displays can highlight their service medals or the associations they were part of. Its can be a Shriners Fez or an elegant red hat to represent the Red Hat Society. You can include their favorite books or movies, or that concert poster that they just needed to have.

A memorial display brings special moments and allows others to connect with an aspect of your loved ones that they may not have known. Again, its about creating memories and eliciting the positive memorials to honour your loved one.

Create a Photo Display

A Photo display is a wonderful way to share the happy moments of your loved one’s life. Using easels and boards, you can share various times and cherish memories. A general request can be sent to all visitors to bring along a photo to share.

Theses photos can be kept on display during the services, moved to the reception and share with the family. All funeral homes have easels that can be used for display.

Create a Flower Display

Flowers can help set a tone for the services. They can be easily added by family and friends. Its best to pick a flower that means something to your family or your loved one. You can choose your loved one’s favourite flower, something they always loved to receive or grow, or even their province official flower.

It can also be as simple as a flower with their favourite colour.

Create a Musical Play List

Music plays a key role in everyday life. Everyone has that song that they love, song that was meaningful to them or always made them happy. Music in a service does not need to be somber, you can choose different musics that celebrate your loved one.

Choosing music can be as simple as a wedding song, or a song that your loved always played on an instrument. Personalizing the musical selection will ensure that individualized touch.

Create a Personal Meal or Dessert

For many people food is a key part of any gatherings, especially in times of grief food can function as a comfort or elicit positive memories. Adding your loved one’s favourite food or dessert can personalise any reception. Your loved one had a favourite candy, cake, restaurant or even take out dish.

Funeral homes do offer catering; however, they are always willing to work with families to ensure they can meet your needs.

Create a Personalized Reading or Eulogy

A quite easy way to personalize a service is to choose a reading that reflects your loved one’s life. You can choose their favourite reading, an excerpt from their favourite book or a something they wrote themselves.

Write your speech so it includes your loved one’s personality. You could share stories about them, what they were like, what you admired about them, and anything else you wish to share.

Create a Digital Memory Wall

Most obituaries are found online and allow friends and families to provide comments and share condolences. Instead, you can encourage the sharing of memories and anecdotes from your loved one’s lives. It allows an opportunity to extend the conversations from the visitations, service, or receptions.

Asking people to share memories turns an obituary into a gallery of memories and meaningful stories. The online obituary can be visited, shared, and transformed into a story of your loved ones live.

A Personal Service

Personalizing a service, a reception or a visitation allows you to celebrate your loved one’s life in a meaningful way. Theses simple suggestions can add a meaningful element to any service. It can bring your loved one’s life to the service.

Personalizing a service does not need to be expensive or time consuming. It can be as simple as you would like it. However, everyone will appreciate that personal touch and will help you and all your friends to share memories and may help in the grieving process.

When in doubt, speak to your funeral director as they can help with ideas or suggestions.