Personalization is one of the 2017 funeral trends funeral directors expect to grow.
Families want funeral services to reflect their loved one and let everyone experience what made their life special.
Since personalization is on the rise, we’ve come up with a list of 11 ways to personalize a funeral service.
Family and Friends Involvement
Family and friends can have personal involvement in the funeral service to help them grieve and honor their loved one. They can be a pallbearer or read a eulogy in tribute of the deceased, or if they’d rather do something behind-the-scenes, they can help create personalized photo displays about the deceased, which we’ll talk about in more detail later in this post.
Floral Sprays
Don’t underestimate the healing power of flowers; flowers express feelings of love, show sympathy, and give hope and strength to grieving families. Creative, personalized floral sprays can showcase a loved one’s hobby, such as incorporating golf balls into the floral spray if they played golf. Or, you can personalize the floral spray by including photos of the deceased.
Food
Food and grieving go hand in hand and create more opportunities for personalization. Families can serve their loved one’s favorite foods, or if their loved one liked to cook, use their recipes to make their signature dishes to serve. Family and friends can be given a copy of the recipes as a memorial gift to take with them.
Memorial Gifts
Families and friends can grieve and remember their loved one through a personal memorial gift. For example, if they liked to garden, give funeral attendees a packet of seeds to plant in their loved one’s honor. Or if they liked to read, provide everyone with a personalized bookmark to keep the memory of their loved one close to them.
Music
When listening to music, it transports us to a different place and can provide us with a way to cope with the loss of a loved one. Whether it’s through comforting words or familiar lyrics, music heals the soul. You can personalize funeral services by playing songs for grieving, or playing songs by the deceased’s favorite music artists.
Personalized Casket or Urn
A custom-designed casket or an iconic urn can personalize the memory of a deceased loved one forever. Caskets and urns can be made personal by having a unique design, or they can be made to look like a favorite item of the deceased, such as Carrie Fisher’s Prozac pill urn, or this sneaker-shaped casket.
Photo Display
A memorial photo display of a loved one’s hobbies and interests shows their personality and what made their life special. You can create a wreath with photos of the deceased and fake flowers so that it’ll last forever. Or, create a display filled with their favorite activities. For example, if they liked running, create a display with their running shoes, water bottle, and photos.
Release Lanterns
By having family and friends participate in a ceremonial release of lanterns, it’ll add personalization to their loved one’s funeral service while also honoring their memory of them. Other than releasing lanterns, some other suggestions for things to release are balloons, butterflies, or doves. Just be sure to find lanterns and balloons that are biodegradable.
Share Memories
Family and friends can share memories of their loved one by writing their name and a short message on a piece of paper and attaching it to a memorial tree. Or, everyone can write on memorial stones to place in a glass vase, or an item personal to the deceased such as a soccer ball if they played soccer. Family and friends also can gather after the service to comfort each other and share memories.
Tribute Video
Creating a Tribute Video to honor a loved one can help family and friends grieve while having a permanent memorial video of their loved one’s life to keep and cherish forever. You can include photos and memories that capture the deceased’s personality, and add effects to create a mixture of emotions to show their life’s moments.
Unique Memorial Service Location
Holding the memorial service in a location special to the deceased is another way to add personalization to the service. If they liked being outdoors, hold the memorial service in a garden or park. Or if they chose cremation and having their ashes scattered, hold the memorial service in the scattering location.
What are some other unique ways to personalize a funeral service? Share them with us in the comments!
Jenny, I love the idea to have a personalized design when creating a casket. My wife’s aunt has recently passed away and we want to properly memorialize her. I definitely think that we should consider getting a custom casket that could display some of her favorite things.
The funeral of a family-friend is coming up soon so I’ve been looking for ways to make it really special. I like the idea of releasing personalized lanterns into the sky to honor them. We’ll have to find some biodegradable lanterns we can use and see what everyone else thinks of the idea. Thanks for the tips!
Things have changed now. We can now even personalize funerals. We can spice it up from music to different activities. It’s great if all of the funeral homes will be open to this idea.
I really like the idea of having friends and family create photo displays for the memorial service. I want my father’s funeral to be special, especially since he was taken from us suddenly. If I had his friends choose photos of him and display them around the funeral home, I think that would be perfect.
Thank you for all the tips on how to personalize a funeral service. My family and I really don’t want this funeral to be like all the others we have seen. I really like your idea of releasing lanterns. I think it would be really fun to make them customizable for the family as well!
I like how you mentioned how you can personalize a funeral by serving your loved one’s favorite food and including the recipe. My aunt has recently passed away this summer, and it is up to me to plan and personalize the funeral for her. I will see if I can find a funeral service that can help me get everything sorted out.