Arranging a funeral service at funeral homes Mentor, OH, for the lost loved one is not a simple task – especially if you’re doing it for the first time. It involves making dozens of decisions within a short timeframe. You may have to do everything from picking the casket to inviting the guests.

If you’re tasked with managing the last services of the departed soul, here is what you should do:

How to Plan a Funeral

1. Learn About Funeral

First, acquaint yourself with different events involved in a funeral service. This will ease stress and help you reduce costs, and give a perfect tribute to the lost loved one.

Don’t wait till the last day to start arranging for the service. Start planning soon after you’re tasked with arranging the funeral.

2. Set Your Budget

Funerals can cost a lot if you make unscrupulous decisions which are highly likely at a time when you’re experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions.

But there are many cost-friendly ways to honor your loved ones the way they deserve. Much will come down to the choices you make. Here’s how to set your funeral budget:

• Research average funeral costs in your locality. Note that cremation often costs less than burial.
• Take a look at your finances and insurance, then determine what you can afford
• Ask a friend who has already arranged a service before or a professional funeral director to help you stay on task and avoid unnecessary purchases

3. Choose Disposition Method

For most families, this comes down to burial vs cremation. While you have plenty of final disposition ideas but the two most popular choices are cremation and burial.

Make your decision based on the deceased’s final wish, the family’s religious or cultural preferences, and your budget. At the same time, consider whether or not to embalm. This comes true even if you’re going with burial as you have sorts of alternative burial and preservation methods – less expensive than embalming.

4. Decide About the Funeral Services

A complete funeral service includes many events, both before the service and after. That includes wake, viewing, visitation (before events) and reception, cremation, scattering, and committal, also called after events.

5. Plan the Additional Service Events

Next, you need to take care of additional services that make up the whole event like choosing an officiant, deciding on readings, Scriptures, prayers, and songs, as well as who should give the eulogy.

Also, decide if you want an open casket or a closed one, any special music or open mic sharing time, or any other special memorial tributes.

6. Choose a Final Resting Place

While the traditional resting place for burial is at a cemetery, you get tons of options if the loved one is cremated. You may scatter all or part of the ashes in the ocean, river, or from a cliff. Or you can choose to keep the cremation urn at home. Similarly, you can bury the urn, or place it into a columbarium niche at funeral homes Mentor, OH.