When planning final services for a family member who has passed away, you’ll need to choose between funeral services or cremation services in Columbia, MD. Whichever one you select is entirely up to you and your family since both body disposition options are honorable.

One of the things you should know is that cremations are now more common than they’ve other been. It used to be the case where funerals were much more common than cremations. However, cremations are the leading body disposition option in many jurisdictions.

Read on to learn about 3 reasons why cremation services are increasingly being chosen over funerals.

1. Cost-Effective

Cremations are more cost-effective than funerals are. This is the primary reason why cremation services have become so overwhelmingly popular. Why are they so much cheaper? If you plan a cremation, you can usually skip some of the options that are more common to funerals. For instance, you can skip the funeral service in a church, the viewing, the wake, the casket, the embalming, and the body preparations such as makeup and hairstyling. This doesn’t mean that you can’t add more options to a cremation service. But the extras are optional. So you can save a lot of money if you plan a cremation and stick with only what is absolutely necessary.

2. Options After Final Services

If your loved one is buried, their casketed body will be lowered beneath the ground and will be covered up. But there are lots of options after the final services if you go with cremation. This is one of the main reasons why many people opt to arrange cremation services. Options include, but are not limited to, scattering the ashes, keeping the ashes in an urn, bury the urn, getting cremation jewelry, combining the ashes with paint before painting a portrait of the deceased, interring the urn at a columbarium facility that has wall spaces where the urns can be stored, and more. You can ask the funeral director who helps you to plan for more suggestions.

3. Convenient

Sometimes people choose cremations because they offer more flexibility. For instance, if someone dies and their loved ones are spread out all over the world, it might be hard for everyone to get to a funeral service. In such cases, it might make more sense to plan a cremation service right away and to then plan a memorial service or celebration of life service down the road so that the family members have enough time to make travel arrangements.

Do you need to plan funeral services or cremation services in Columbia, MD? We’re a family owned and operated funeral home that has been serving the community since the early 1900s. So we have deep roots with this area and strong connections with the people in this area. You can count on us to help you plan final services for loved ones who have died. We can also be of assistance should you wish to preplan your own body disposition. This will allow you to arrange the service you want – so that your loved ones don’t have to after you’ve passed away. For the help you need, give us a call.