Have you been thinking about possibly trying to plan your funeral yourself rather than leaving it up to your family to do it later on? This is an option that many funeral homes will extend to you these days.
You can plan for the future by putting plans for yourself into place. Outside of the fact that it’ll benefit your family in a big way, it’ll also benefit you by giving you the opportunity to map out the funeral service that you want for yourself.
Before you do any future planning with help from a home, though, you should make sure that you know how to plan your funeral from start to finish. We’re going to walk you through the steps that you’ll need to take to get the job done.
Check out our guide on how to plan your funeral below.
Start by Choosing the Right Funeral Home
Prior to putting a single plan in place for your , you’re going to need to conduct a search for a funerals home to assist you. They’re going to be able to keep you on the right track as you plan your funeral in advance.
Fortunately, there are almost 19,000 funerals homes in the country right now. It’ll give you plenty of options when it comes time to choose one for your funeral.
But you shouldn’t just pick whichever funerals home you can find in the general vicinity of your house first. You should do your homework on all of the local funerals homes and set out to find the very best one in your area.
Decide Whether You Want to Be Buried or Cremated
Once you have a reputable funerals home in your corner, the next thing you’ll want to do is give some thought to whether you would like to be buried or cremated. This is obviously one of the most important decisions that you’ll make as you plan your funeral.
For a long time, burial options were really the only options for most people. The vast majority of people used to request to be buried.
But in this day and age, cremations have become so much more common than they once were. You should learn about cremation and everything that it has to offer before writing off the idea of being cremated.
Either way, you’ll need to come to a decision before moving forward. You’ll need to let a funeral home know if you wish to be buried or cremated. You should also mention it to your family to keep them in the loop.
Think About What Kind of Funeral Service You Want
Regardless of whether you want to be buried or cremated, you’re more than welcome to plan out a funeral service for yourself. This funeral service can be almost anything that you want for it to be.
Some people opt to plan out a very traditional funeral service and ask for it to be held in their church. Others ask that their families skip the traditional funeral service and stage either a memorial service or a celebration of life ceremony for them.
You’re free to go in whichever direction that you want to. This is where you’re really going to get the opportunity to put your stamp on your funeral and make it your own.
Select the Funeral Products That You Want to See Used
There are quite a few funeral products that will need to be used throughout the course of your funeral.
For example, if you’re going to be buried, your body will need to be placed in a casket. If you’re going to be cremated, your remains will need to be put into an urn.
You should make it a point to pick out all the different funeral products that will be used during your service at a funeral home. You might even want to go as far as to create memorial cards and funeral programs for your service. It’ll take even more off your family’s plate.
Pick Out a Cemetery
If you’re going to be buried in a cemetery at the conclusion of your funeral or if you’re going to have your cremated remains buried or stored in a cemetery, you’ll need to get around to choosing a cemetery at some point. There is a good chance that there are at least a few cemeteries in your area.
Just like with choosing a funerals home, you should do your homework on your cemetery options to see which one will be a good fit for you. You should also bring your family into this discussion since you might all want to decide to be buried in the same cemetery.
Whatever the case, you shouldn’t end the funerals planning process without exploring your cemetery options. It’ll put you in a position to plan a burial service if that’s something you’re also interested in doing.
Consider Pre-Paying for Your Pre-Planned Funeral
When you’re all finished with planning your funerals, a funeral home is usually going to ask you to pay for some or all of the funerals plans that you’ve put into place. You should strongly consider trying to foot the bill for your funeral so that your family doesn’t have to do it later.
Pre-paying for your pre-planned funeral will give you peace of mind. You’ll sleep better at night knowing that all your funeral planning is taken care of.
Begin Trying to Plan Your Funeral From the Ground Up Today
Now that you understand how to plan your funerals, is it something that appeals to you? Then you should start calling around to different funerals homes to see how they might be able to help.
At first, planning your own funerals might seem a little bit scary and overwhelming. But when you’re done doing it, you’ll be so glad that you took the time to get it out of the way. Your family will also appreciate you thinking ahead when you plan for the future.
Find more funerals planning tips and tricks in some of the other articles posted on our blog Learn More