1. Set a budget so you can manage your choices.
2. Is there a will or funeral plan which might give funeral instructions? Did the person leave any wishes about burial or cremation?
3. If thinking of burial, you may have choices of burial places, such as churchyard, cemetery, woodland or natural burial site and private land.
4. You could hold a vigil the night before or visit your person before the funeral at our beautiful Riverstone Hall.
5. You can choose from a range of coffins, made from veneered mdf, pine, bamboo, banana leaf, willow, oak, cardboard and more.
6. You can hold the funeral ceremony in a church or at the crematorium, but also in our ceremony hall, at the graveside, in a community hall, at home, in the garden, wherever you want to.
7. Family or friends can be involved in bearing or transporting the coffin to the funeral, decorating the coffin or ceremony space, preparing food and drink for a gathering afterwards and more.
8. A ceremony can be a celebration of life, religious, spiritual or non-religious, and reflect the views of the person who has died.
9. To lead the ceremony you can choose an independent celebrant who will reflect the views of the person, a religious minister, a friend or family member.
10. You can choose your own content, music and words for the ceremony. Not everything needs to be funereal. It can be a celebration of a life as well as mourning a loss.