Planning a Memorial Service

Our cremations services include helping families plan memorial services for their deceased loved ones. Memorial services are conducted after cremation. This means that they can happen weeks, months, or even a year after the death of a loved one. Because of this, family members have the time to plan to attend, if they live out of town, and can make airline reservations and arrange for time off of work with a lot of advance notice.

The primary difference between a funeral service and memorial service is that the intact body in a casket is present at a funeral service, but not at a memorial service, where instead the deceased’s presence may be in the form of an urn if they were cremated, or a photograph if the body or ashes were buried prior to the memorial services.

Like funeral services, a memorial service focuses on celebrating the unique life story of the person who died. Services may be held at the funeral home, a house of worship or any public gathering place. Our funeral directors are expert event planners and can explain all the options and venues available to you.

As with funerals, memorial services frequently conclude with a luncheon or reception. The reception may be open to everyone or it may be limited to invited family and friends.

Memorial services generally focus less on the solemnity of a loved one’s death and more on the memories of the life they lived and the impact they had on everyone and everything around them.

Many memorial services have photo walls, where photos of the deceased are posted with captions. These are usually chronological and capture important moments in the deceased’s life.

It is not unusual to have a video comprised of music and photos of the deceased playing before and after the memorial service. The music accompanying the video might be inspirational music or music that the deceased liked or music that captured the life and spirit of the deceased. The choices are completely up to the family and there is no music that is right or wrong for these kinds of videos.

However, many of the same elements in funeral services can be – and are – included in memorial services.

Since capturing the essence of who the deceased was as a person is part of a memorial service, it is not unusual for there to be readings during the service. These might include scriptures that were favorites of the deceased, poems that they either liked or that describe them, and sections of prose that they may have gleaned some of their life’s philosophy from.

Additionally, as with funeral services, eulogies may be part of memorial services. Although storytelling, with people given an open invitation to come up and say what they remember about the deceased is very common at memorial services, eulogies, given by close friends, are also just as common because these are given by people who knew the deceased best. Eulogies can be very comforting and encouraging to the family and to everyone else attending, and it is not unusual for eulogies to reveal endearing or cherish aspects about the deceased that no one – not even the family – knew about.

Music, which is a part of funeral services, may be a part of memorial services as well. There are usually one or two pieces that signify something special to the family or that give hope and encouragement to the people who have gathered for the memorial.

Memorial services, like funeral services, can be recorded and/or streamed live. The funeral home will take care of making the necessary technical arrangements to facilitate either or both of these.

Memorial services are part of our cremations services, 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.