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Funeral Planning Questions & Answers

If you’ve never had to plan a funeral service before but now find yourself needing to do so, you’ll likely have lots of questions that you need answers to. While you’ll get all the answers you need from a funeral home in Silver Spring, MD, it doesn’t hurt to get up to speed before heading to the funeral home for a consultation. So that you know what to expect, what follows are answers to some common questions that people tend to ask about the death care services industry.

What is a Funeral Service?

A funeral service is an event for a dearly departed individual before the burial or the cremation. A funeral service provides the possibility for friends and family of the deceased to grieve their loss, give tributes, share recollections, and more. You can have a traditional funeral in a church or chapel, or you can have a contemporary funeral service wherever you wish.

What’s Better – a Cremation or a Burial?

The fact of the matter is that neither is better than the other. Whichever one your family prefers is the one you should plan – that is, unless the deceased had let their wishes be known. You’ll always want to honor the wishes of your deceased loved one. But if they did not preplan or let anyone know their preference before their passing, you’ll want to decide as a family.

Is it Possible to Customize the Funeral Service?

Most funeral homes will allow you to customize or personalize the funeral service. So if you want your cultural or religious background to be incorporated into the service, you can bet that the funeral director will work with you to ensure that you get the final service you want.

What’s the Appropriate Casket to Buy?

The funeral director at the funeral home will be able to help you choose the right casket ahead of your deceased loved one’s burial. You’ll want to come up with a budget beforehand so that the selection process will be more seamless for you and your family.

How Can a Funeral Director Help Me?

A funeral director will help you plan a cremation or a funeral, will explain the entire planning process, will answer your questions, will book the venue where the service will take place, will help you write the obituary and have it printed in a newspaper, will help you choose a casket or an urn, will provide any grief resources you or your family may need, and will do so much more.

When you need the help of a reputable funeral home serving Silver Spring, MD residents, ensure you give us a call. We’ll be honored to help you in your time of need. We’re a family owned and operated funeral home that has been serving the community since the early 1900s. This means we have deep roots in the area and a connection to the people here. For the help you require, you can reach us by phone to speak with one of our licensed industry professionals. You can also visit our office to speak to someone in person.

Online Cremation Service Planning Offers Many Benefits

Having to plan a final service for a deceased loved one can be tough. For one thing, you’ll be going through so much. And for another thing, planning their cremation service with a Columbia, MD funeral home will mean acknowledging that they’re really gone.

If you have to plan the final service but need to do so quickly, one option worth considering is online planning. Here’s a look at some of the benefits of planning a final service online.

Can Make Planning Easier

One reason you may wish to plan online is that it will make things easier. When you’re in the early stages of grief, you might be more comfortable planning online than planning at a funeral home. That’s not to say that the funeral director and other staff won’t be a great help at the funeral home. But online planning at a time when you’ll be in mourning may simply make the process easier. This will help you to focus on the task at hand – planning a final service.

More Convenient

If you have to plan a cremation service at a funeral home, you’ll have to make an appointment, travel to the funeral home, sit down with the funeral director, and make final service plans. There’s a more convenient way. You can, instead of having to physically go to the funeral home, do our planning via an online form. All you’ll have to do is go to the funeral home website, go to the online planning form, key in the relevant information, and then submit the completed form.

Plan Anytime of Day You Want

Another benefit of planning online is that you will be able to do so at any time of the day. You can plan in the early morning hours, in the afternoon, in the evening, or in the night. So if you need to plan in a hurry, you’ll appreciate the level of flexibility that online planning offers.

Plan from Wherever You Happen to be

If you don’t live in the same town as your deceased loved one, you will be able to plan their final service online. This means you won’t have to wait until you drive into town or fly into town to start making cremation service plans. Online planning will, therefore, benefit your family as you seek to get plans in place without any needless delay.

Do you have any questions about planning a cremation service in Columbia, MD? You can either plan at our office under the guidance of our funeral director or you can plan online. If you should run into any issues while planning online, you can always give us a call for assistance. We’re a family owned and operated funeral home that has been serving the community since the early 1900s. This means we have deep roots in the area and a connection to the people here. For the help you require, you can reach us by phone to speak with one of our licensed industry professionals. You can also visit our office to speak to someone in person.

Where Can You Host a Memorial After Funeral Service?

It’s a tradition to hold a funeral service at a Columbia, MD funeral home chapel or a church. But what are your options if you want to hold a memorial service after the funeral and burial? The good news is that there are various places you can hold a memorial service.

When you’re considering your venue options, you’ll need to keep in mind any group size or social distancing restrictions. If in doubt, be sure to ask.

Church

One option is to hold the memorial service in a church. If you’re a member of a church, you might be able to hold the memorial service there either for free or for a nominal cost. One reason a church is a good option is that such buildings will typically have everything you need. There’ll be a section for the memorial service and there’ll be a place for the reception afterward. If you’re not a member of a church, you can find some searches in and around the area. Give them a call to enquire whether or not they can use the facilities for the memorial.

Private Home

Another option is to hold the memorial service in a private home – perhaps your own home. You will want to keep the event small if it will be held in a private home. So if you intend to hold it on your property, you will want to ensure that the group size is manageable. You might want to restrict it to immediate family members or to only members of the household. Whatever direction you take, you can definitely hold a meaningful memorial that honors your deceased loved one.

Outdoors

If you’re looking for a place to hold a memorial service, you can also choose the great outdoors. This time of year is definitely conducive to hosting an event outside. You can hold the memorial in a park, in your own backyard, or someplace else like a rural setting.

Restaurant

Another option for holding a memorial service in honor of your deceased relative is a restaurant. Some restaurants have areas that can be reserved for different functions. As was hinted above, social distancing protocols currently in place might not make this option viable right now. But that doesn’t mean that these restrictions will stay in place forever.

When you need a funeral home in Columbia, MD to assist you with arranging a funeral service or a cremation service, be sure to get in touch. If you have any questions about memorial services, we can give you the answers you need for that as well. In fact, we have memorial service options that will help you honor your deceased loved one in a special way. We’re a family owned and operated funeral home that has been serving the community since the early 1900s. This means we have deep roots in the area and a connection to the people here. For the help you require, you can reach us by phone to speak with one of our licensed industry professionals. You can also visit our office to speak to someone in person.

Do You Need to Write an Obituary? Here Are Some Tips!

One of the things you’ll need to do after a loved one dies is write their obituary. This is an important document that announces their death, lists their close family members, mentions some notable life events, and lists the funeral service details. The provider of cremation service in Clarksburg, MD will be able to help you prepare the obituary.

Here’s a look at some things to keep in mind when writing the sort of obituary that will honor your deceased loved one.

Familiarize Yourself with Obituary Write-Ups

If you’ve never written an obituary before, you might be at a loss as to how to go about it. You should read a few of them to get a feel for the length, the content, and the flow. While obituaries that will appear in newspapers are quite short, they usually include the same type of information. Once you get a feel for them, you’ll find it easier to write the obituary.

Gather Information

Once you know what sort of information you’ll need for the obituary, you’ll want to gather it. Specifically, you’ll want to include the full name, birthday, birthplace, where they died, date of death, how old they were when they died, list of surviving loved ones, and funeral service information. Once you have the information you need, writing the obituary will be easier.

Get Information from Loved Ones

When looking for the information you need, ask your family members for help. Many hands make light work, as the old saying goes. So you’ll want to get your family to help by sharing information you can use to produce the obituary.

Let Others Review it

Make certain you have some of your loved ones comb over the written obituary so that they can verify the information it contains. The last thing you’ll want is to get important details wrong. If you have a couple more set of eyes reviewing the obituary, chances are that any errors will be caught and corrected.

Keep it Short and Sweet

Remember that obituaries that are published in newspapers tend to be really short. The funeral director will let you know about the length requirements. Many funeral homes do post obituaries on their websites as well. You will be able to write a longer obituary if you post it online. But it will have to be shorter if you will have it posted in a print publication.

Read it Out Loud

You might be surprised at how useful it can be if you read something out loud. When you hear the words written on the page, you will pick up on things that will help you to write more effectively.

When the time comes to write an obituary, we can help. In fact, we’ll also send the obituary to the newspaper of your choice. And we can also provide tips to help you through the process. We can also help you with your final services needs. We’re a family owned and operated funeral home that has been serving the community since the early 1900s. This means we have deep roots in the area and a connection to the people here. For the help you require, you can reach us by phone to speak with one of our licensed industry professionals. You can also visit our office to speak to someone in person.

How to Get Children Ready for a Funeral Service

When planning a funeral service, it’s easy to sometimes forget the youngest members of the family. That’s unfortunate because children mourn the loss of loved ones too. And while they should not be forced to participate in the funeral service at a funeral home in Clarksburg, MD, they should be permitted to attend and take part.

If you’re wondering about how to get your kids involved at the event, here are things to consider.

Consider if They’re Old Enough

If your youngsters are old enough to have known the deceased, then they’re likely old enough to attend the funeral service. But if your youngers are very young and did not really know the deceased, then you could consider leaving them with someone you trust. This might be a better option than taking them along with you since they might not understand what’s going on.

Consider if They Want to Go

You should also consider if they really want to attend the funeral service. Some of your kids might want to, but others might not feel comfortable. You should let your little ones know that they’re welcome to attend the final service honoring their loved ones. But you should also ensure they know that they don’t have to go if they’re not up to it. After all, there are other things they can do to honor the memory of their deceased loved one.

Ask Them if They Want to Take Part

If your children do, indeed, wish to attend the funeral service, you’ll want to know if they want to participate. Do they want to hand out programs, serve as greeters, or do something else? Make sure you allow them to do something they feel comfortable doing. Allowing them to actively participate, in whatever way they’re comfortable, will allow your kids to honor their deceased relative in a way that makes sense to them.

Let Them Know What a Funeral Service is

You’ll no doubt want to ensure that your children know what a funeral service is. It’s best to ensure they know what to expect so that they can decide whether they want to go and if they want to participate. If they’re overwhelmed at some point during the ceremony, you can accompany them out of the venue so that they can clear their head.

Do you need help from a funeral home serving Clarksburg, MD families? If so, you’ll want to find a reputable funeral home with a track record of success. We can definitely help you with your funeral service or cremation service planning. So don’t hesitate to contact us to get answers to your questions or to set up a planning consultation. We’re a family owned and operated funeral home that has been serving the community since the early 1900s. This means we have deep roots in the area and a connection to the people here. For the help you require, you can reach us by phone to speak with one of our licensed industry professionals. You can also visit our office to speak to someone in person.

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