Cremation is a popular option for many families due to flexibility and cost. You can have a ‘traditional’ funeral service before a cremation or a memorial service at any time with or without the cremains present.
There are many options open to you when it comes to honoring your loved one's life.
- Memorial Service - Just like a funeral service, a memorial service is a time to remember your loved one. This can be held shortly after death or weeks later, with or without an urn present. Memorial services can be held at the funeral home, a church, or other location.
- Memorial Service with Viewing – Similar to a traditional service, a memorial service with viewing means that you will have a more ‘traditional’ funeral service with the body present. For families leaning towards cremation but wanting to have a similar closure process to a funeral, this is the best of both. Families will have a funeral, then the body will be cremated after the service.
After the cremation and memorial services, there are a variety of choices for your loved one's final disposition:
- Interment means that you'll bury or entomb your loved one's cremated remains. This can be in a family plot, a memorial site, a cremation niche or urn garden, or in a variety of other indoor and outdoor locations.
- Scattering allows you to spread your loved one's cremated remains in a memorial garden, a cemetery, over water, or across any other meaningful site. You also can choose to scatter some of the cremated remains and retain the rest in an urn for interment or another form of disposition.
- Placing cremated remains in multiple urns allows family members who are separated by distance to each feel the comfort of having their loved one's final resting place in a nearby location.
