Our enduring strength that caters for everyone

How to plan the perfect funeral

The following questions are aimed to guide you to help make decisions, but please remember there is no rush to decide as we want you to make the right decisions for you. There is no right or wrong way these days, so you don’t have to follow the more traditional route. We will of course be able to explain everything in more detail when we meet to discuss options:

• Is the funeral going to be a cremation or burial?
• Do you want a traditional, modern, eco-friendly or alternative funeral? We offer all options – read our information below about the different types, so you can decide what suits you best.
• Do you want family and friends to attend the funeral? – read our information of the positives for people having the opportunity to honour a life.
• What type of coffin do you want? – we cater for all budgets and tastes. You don’t have to have a coffin in many circumstances, but a shroud must be in place to cover the person when in public.
• Where would you like the funeral service to be held, for example, in crematorium, in church, or in another location such as our offices, hotel, hall, in your own home as some examples? – we can arrange any location or venue on your behalf
• Would you like any religion or beliefs whether fully, semi or none at all to be included in the funeral service? 
• Do you have a preferred minister, celebrant or family member to conduct the funeral service? Or are you happy for us to recommend someone suitable to your needs. Alternatively, if available, Amanda-Louise can conduct the service if desired.
• Do you want anyone else to speak at the funeral service?
• How long do you want the funeral service? - these are booked in single slots at crematoriums, but we can book more than one slot.
• Do you want to have a funeral and a funeral service (or wake, memorial, or celebration of life) at separate occasions?
• Do you want the traditional hearse to travel to the cremation or burial, or prefer to opt for alternative vehicle? – we have a range of vehicles
• Do you require any additional bearers? – we can provide support and guidance in carrying the coffin yourself, or we can bring our professional bearers and these can vary in numbers?
• Do you need any other vehicles such as limousines to escort any family or friends to the funeral? – we have a range of vehicles
• Where do you want the journey to start from – the cortege can start from our funeral home, or from a particular address or even take a particular route or stop?
• Do you want the person who has died to wear certain clothes, or prefer for us to provide a suitable gown? 
• Would you like to visit the person who has died whilst they are a guest within our care? – we are happy to make this arrangement
• Do you want any floral tributes or to have any donations to charity? – we offer a full range of flowers
• Do you want any music tributes (whether recorded or live musicians – singer, pianist, bagpiper, bulger or band) or visual displays showing photos to celebrate a life on a screen or display boards?
• Would you like the funeral to be webcast – to be linked so family and friends can watch the funeral from the comfort of their own home via the internet? Many crematoriums have this inbuilt facility which is discreet, and the recording can be available to watch back for a time period, or saved onto a USB for example.
• Do you want the funeral professionally photographed or filmed, again so that it can be watched later or shared with people who were unable to attend? We can recommend experienced photographing and filming funeral suppliers.
• Alternatively, you may wish to have the funeral professional livestreamed, which is different to the standard webcasting available in some crematoriums or cemeteries. Contact us for professional live streaming companies.
• Would you like a newspaper announcement to be made? – we can do this on your behalf, and we also offer an online obituary page to celebrate a life
• Would you like any printed order of services for the funeral service – we offer a range of options
• Would you like any keepsakes for the funeral services, to remember the person, such as packets of seeds to be planted in their memory later – our favourite packets we offer is rosemary as renown for its qualities in memory. We also have memory books, memory candles and cards, coffin tags, remembrance cards, bubble mix favours, wooden grave markers.
• Do you wish us to organise a balloon or dove release to mark the occasion?
• We offer venue and hospitality options to enable family and friends to come together to pay respects and honouring a life – from cup of tea and biscuits to meals with drinks.
• Do you want a bespoke urn to place ashes into? – we have a full range of these products
• Would you want any ashes to be made into jewellery, garden or home ornament or to be commissioned for a painting as a memory keepsake – we offer a full range of products to choose from
• What would you like to do with the ashes? For example, interred into a plot, or scatter ashes into a garden, used to plant a tree, or scattered over water or during a train ride, by rocket into space or ashes into a firework - we can help you with these options
  

We Are Here to Give You Clear Options, without dictating what you should have. Read what happens when you book our funeral director services

We offer inhouse anything that you may want or need for a funeral, a funeral service and support afterwards.