Planning Funeral Service

Funerals and memorial ceremonies allow family members, friends, and those who cared about the departed to commemorate and remember the deceased while providing comfort and support to those closest to them and each other. At funeral homes in Skaneateles, NY, we understand what must be done.

Putting Together a Service

Funeral or memorial service planning is an extremely unique experience. Your choices will be influenced by various things. This might include life experiences, relationships with the deceased, what the deceased previously desired, your own wants and needs, what you can afford, and many other things. As a result, it’s critical to recognize that a “funeral,” as we commonly conceive of it, actually serves two purposes:

• Helps with the bodily remains of the deceased (the form of final disposition)
• Helps in paying tribute to, commemorating, and even celebrating the life and memory of someone who has passed away?

Choose the Type of Disposition

It may be easier to plan a funeral or memorial ceremony if you first decide on the type of final corpse disposition you want.

Traditional Burial

Traditional burial entails purchasing:

• All purchasable items include a casket, a cemetery plot or mausoleum space, a grave liner, or a burial vault.
• A headstone, grave marker, monument, or plaque (an inscription on a gravestone)
• Natural Burial

Natural or “green burial” options are now available at a growing number of traditional-burial cemeteries and places mainly designed for this final disposition. People who choose natural burial generally want to leave as little of an environmental footprint as possible after they die.

Cremation

Cremation is a method of reducing a body to bone fragments or “ashes” using heat and flame. Following cremation, the bereaved family can keep or scatter the cremated remains, burial below ground in an urn, or placement the inurned cremated remains in a columbarium, among other possibilities.

Hydrolysis of Alkaline

This type of final disposition is new. Thus it may not be accessible in your area just yet. The alkaline hydrolysis method, often known as “flameless cremation,” reduces a body to an inert liquid and skeletal bone fragments using pressure and relatively moderate heat (in comparison to burning).

It would help if you additionally considered the following, as appropriate, to personalize the service:

• Officiant(s) who conduct the service include a clergy member, celebrant, or funeral director.
• Poems, Prayers, religious or secular passages, and who will read them, and who will give them
• Eulogist (s) to write and deliver a eulogy for the deceased.
• Food/beverages, whether professionally supplied, provided “potluck” by participants, or arranged by the funeral home or provider, whether contemporary, religious hymns, or both, and whether live or recorded

The Presence of the Body

Another crucial decision you’ll have to make involves the deceased’s bodily presence. As previously stated, burial and cremation are the only methods of final corpse disposition; they do not prevent or require funeral ceremonies with the body present.

Flowers, Donations, or a Combination of the Two?

Funeral flowers or sympathy flowers are traditionally sent as a symbol of solidarity and to convey condolences. As a result, you’ll need to determine if visitors can send flowers, if you’d prefer they donate to a specific charitable organization or cause in memory of the deceased, or if either is acceptable. Funeral homes in Skaneateles, NY always want to assist.