How to Personalize a Memorial Service

After cremations as part of our cremations services, you’ll want to plan a memorial service to honor the life of your loved one who has died and to pay your final respects to them. Memorial services give you the ability to bring friends and family together to remember the stories that characterized your loved one’s life, to remember the impact they had and the legacy they left and to say goodbye.

Putting a memorial service together for your loved one lets you bring personal touches and be creative about how you choose to remember them. We can provide video tributes that include photos, video clips, and music that chronicle the life of your loved one.

We also can create a memorial table that contains photos and items that highlight the achievements of your loved one’s life. For example, if your loved one was a military veteran, you can include military decorations, military honors, and military commendations. If you’re loved one was an avid hunter or fisherman, you can include photos and items that they used while following their passion. The ideas for a memorial table are infinite.

However, to put together a great personalized memorial service for your loved one will require planning, so there are a few tips that will help us us to create a memorial service that will honor your loved one to the fullest.

To better facilitate grieving, a memorial service should be held shortly after your loved one has been cremated. It is proper to make sure that you give appropriate notice for family and friends to gather and come together so they can participate in planning a service that honors your loved one.

Another tip to personalizing a memorial service is to put yourself in your loved one’s shoes and consider what kind of memorial service they would have had for themselves. In other words, what would they have wanted? Some people leave instructions about the kind of memorial service they want, which is very helpful, but if your loved one did not, then you’ll need to think about what they would have done.

While you’re enlisting the help of family members and close friends to personalize the memorial service, solicit their stories and memories of your loved one, so that you can incorporate and weave those into the memorial service to create an intimate portrait of your loved one.

Think about the format of the memorial service. Do you want it to be interactive, where mourners can recall their favorite memories of your loved one? Do you want to include elements of traditional funeral services, such as readings, eulogies, or music? Do you want a member of the clergy to participate?

Another tip is to think about where you want the memorial service to be held and how that will affect your personalization. Some people choose an outdoor venue that was a favorite of their loved one to have the memorial service. Some people choose a favorite restaurant, where the focus is on sharing food and sharing stories. Other people choose to use the funeral home as a gathering place for the service.

As you can see, the possibilities for personalizing the memorial service for your loved one are almost endless. Go with your heart, and you’ll have the perfect service to pay tribute to and to honor your loved one.

Help planning memorial services is one of the cremations services we offer, so you can depend on our compassionate and experienced team at Hopler & Eschbach Funeral Home to help you. You can visit our funeral home at 483 Chenango St., Binghamton, NY 13901, or you can call us today at (607) 722-4023.