How Should You Prepare for a Memorial Service?

A separate memorial service following a burial or cremation helps the survivors to come out of grief. Many close people attend the event on the chosen date to encourage the mourners to start a new chapter. Moreover, grief-stricken people find a natural place to talk openly about their hardships which is a requisite when trying to heal from distress.

The memorial arrangements serve the purpose of helping the surviving family members who are in utter distress. This initiative deserves widespread acknowledgement, like weddings and baby showers, as it helps unravel matters of unexpressed grief. If organised at the right time, such occasions can prevent hindrance to normal life for a child, spouse or old parents of the deceased.

1. Select a Place

2. Finalise a Theme for the Occasion

When arranging a memorial service, there are no strict guidelines for venue selection. You can call the gathering at a meeting space, a hotel, a beach, a park or even at your own home. In this case, the key determinants should be affordability, the estimated number of guests and accessibility. 

If the concerned person holds strong religious ties, you may even choose a holy place for the purpose. Contrarily if there were no such ties, then selecting the funeral home where the burial or cremation was done can be a good option.

3. Select Participants Wisely

For instance, if you are selecting a church, then the clergyperson should be somewhat familiar to the deceased. Otherwise, arranging a memorial service in the church can turn out to be prodigal. This is simply because they can hardly speak heartily when requested to give a eulogy.

Read More: Churches in India

4. Pick a Date

5. Make Final Arrangements

As the stage is set to make a tribute to your loved one, it is time to focus on the more minor details. You must complete the necessary arrangements for refreshments for those who will come. Besides this, you can contact planners who will make appropriate floral arrangements and set the music to complement the occasion's theme. 

Finally, you can request some of the deceased person’s close peers to bring printed photographs which they previously clicked with that person. 

There is no set rule on how to prepare a memorial service. Hosting such an event gives you a chance to reconnect with relatives and other acquaintances, which could have been impossible otherwise. A memorial generates a spark in those relationships.