04Expert Video Answers

What decisions does a family actually need to make when planning a funeral service?

Start with the budget, the venue and the date. Sarah Corbette, Willed’s Head of Funerals, explains that these decisions give the rest of the arrangements a foundation. Families can feel pressure to confirm a date immediately, especially when people need to travel, but taking a breath can help make planning part of remembering the person. Music, flowers and other details can follow as the arrangements take shape. A funeral arranger can explain what needs deciding now and what can wait.

For related guidance, see How do you plan a meaningful funeral service when the person didn’t leave any wishes?.

Read the video transcript

A lot of key decisions for the family is the cost involved and then the next decision is where they would like to have that is going to be a church or a memorial park chapel. After that is the date. Now a lot of people feel very pressured to have a set date and time very quickly on the pretty much on the same day. They do get a lot of pressure from families or people who are wanting to come and pay their respects. We like to give the family permission just to step back and just take a breath. Arranging a funeral for the family is a part of the grieving process. So, we want to make sure that it's not a rush. It's not all a blur for them that they actually have time to reflect of their loved one while they're going through that. All the other elements after those key foundations is all fairly straightforward at that point in time and don't need to be made. So, we just like to give families permission that doesn't have to be all done at once.

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