How Long Does It Take to Plan a Funeral?

Dec 7th, 2020

Trying to balance something as delicate as the organization of a loved one’s funeral and your own grief can be a daunting and overwhelming prospect.

This is because you are often having to make a lot of decisions whilst trying to come to terms with your emotions and feelings of loss. If you are asking yourself, ‘how long does it take to plan a funeral’, this guide is here to help.

You want to ensure that your loved one gets the best send off and service they deserve. This process takes a bit of pre-planning and thinking about, in combination with any prior requests or family or religious traditions. Read on to find out how to carve out the right around of time for planning a funeral.

How Long Does It Take to Arrange a Funeral?

This will depend on the type of service and funeral arrangements you are planning to enact on behalf of your loved one. On average, it takes anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks to plan and execute a funeral.

The important thing to consider first is whether the deceased person in question has left any pre-existing arrangements or wishes they want to be carried out. Everybody will approach the concept of their own mortality differently.

Some people might leave a set of precise instructions of how they envision their funeral to be. Others might leave nothing at all. Not forgetting those that may have passed suddenly and not having had time to consider the details of their service.

Whatever the case might be, as someone who is arranging the funeral, your task will be to turn those wishes into a service that can celebrate and honor their life in the best way possible.

If there is already some element of a pre-planning arrangement, you might find there is actually very little in the way of organization you will need to decide for yourself.

This can save a lot of stress and unnecessary financial burdens that are placed on grieving families. They are often able to arrange the funeral much quicker. Even benefitting from incentives such as double burial plots and family vault space.

Grief can be an extremely debilitating emotion. It leaves people unable to function at their usual capacity. Seeking support and taking steps to relieve families and loved one’s suffering at these difficult times can go a long way for peace of mind.

Was the Deceased of a Particular Religion or Faith?

With certain faiths or religions, some of them require the body to be buried in a certain buy accutane online bestseller time period. For example, the Islamic faith dictates that the body should be buried within 24 hours of death. Also, the body should be buried in an individual burial plot if possible.

This is something to bear in mind when arranging funerals for those that follow a certain religion or faith. It is essential that their traditions and faith are closely adhered to and are not neglected or misinterpreted.

If you are uncertain about any aspects of a funeral service or religious practices, why not ask a funeral director for advice on these matters? Their wealth of experience and assisting families with different burial and funeral requests will be useful and informative.

When Should You Set the Date?

This will depend on the size of your funeral party, the availability of the funeral director, and also how far people will need to travel. To a certain extent, you will need to accommodate those that might be traveling across the country or even from outside the country.

If it is a smaller gathering with people who are comfortably able to get to the funeral, then you might be able to set the date sooner as opposed to larger gatherings with people from out of town. This is often dependant on the type of life your loved one lived and whether they have friends and relatives in close proximity or more further afield.

Another big factor to consider is the availability of your chosen funeral home and the director. First things first are you need to meet the funeral director and work out a realistic timeframe for you to organize things such as flowers, readings, method of burial, the setting, and any memorial gravestones or urns.

They can give you an indication of a manageable date for your loved one’s service and help you with taking care of the smaller details so that everything is considered and sorted.

What Kind of Ceremony or Memorial Service Do They Want?

Work with your funeral director closely and use any pre-planning or wishes that your loved one has left. The rest is about connecting the dots and planning a service that your loved one would be happy with.

You will need to know whether they prefer to be cremated or buried and if so they have any preference on casket or coffin. A cremation service is easier to plan than a buried service, meaning that you can often set a date sooner if you go with the cremation route.

It might be that your loved one wants certain music or even a live band to perform at the service. This will also need to be taken into consideration and their availability for when to have the service. Also the same with any readings or eulogies, as people will need to have time to write and prepare them.