10 helpful hints for arranging or planning a funeral

Most people arranging a funeral are doing it for the first time with little prior experience. The Office Of Fair Trading described it as a “distress purchase”. These helpful hints can help to save on costs and to get what you want.

1. Set a budget and manage your choices.
2. Consider burial choices, churchyard, municipal cemetery, woodland site and private land – yes, private land.
3. You can choose from a range of coffins, pine, willow, bamboo, banana leaf, oak, cardboard and more apart from the normal veneered chipboard.
4. You can hold the funeral at the graveside, in a community hall, at home, in the garden, wherever you want to, not just in a church or crematorium. We have a beautiful ceremony hall by The Dart.
5. Family or friends can be involved in bearing or transporting the coffin to the funeral, decorating the coffin or ceremony space, speaking or playing music at the service and more.
6. You can choose an independent celebrant to lead the ceremony who will reflect the views of the person, a religious minister, a friend or family member.
7. 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.