Funerals are a very personal thing and many people have very express wishes about how they want their funeral to go. Some are so particular that they even know who they want to be at the funeral and who they would rather stayed home. One way to deal with this is to hold a funeral to which mourners must receive an invitation.
Why Are Invitations Something to Consider?
In the case of someone with a lot of friends and family members, holding a funeral by invitation only may be purely a practical decision. Most venues have a finite amount of space available, and you're not likely to want to rent out an auditorium to include everyone. In other situations, the deceased may be considered a public figure or died in a particular manner that created a lot of news. Issuing invitations for the funeral can help to keep the ceremony about the deceased and the people who loved him or her.
Wording the Obituary
It's tricky to publish an obituary if you're not wanting the general public to attend the funeral. When you're planning to restrict the guest list for the ceremony, you may want to avoid publishing an obituary completely. There is no requirement to publish an obituary, so you won't be doing anything wrong or unacceptable. Another option is to go ahead and publish the obituary, but add a statement to either the beginning or to the end that notifies anyone reading the message that the funeral is closed unless the person has received an invitation.
Handling the Invitations
Now that you have a plan, you have to determine the best way to handle the invitations. There are funeral invitation options available from major invitation suppliers, but they may be difficult to find at first. Another option is to handwrite invitations, which is an especially good option for a very small funeral. If the majority of recipients are technologically adept, you might consider using an online invitation planning service, just to be expedient. The manner that you choose is entirely up to you, but you should be sure to include all of the pertinent information for recipients to know where to be and when to be there.
Have a Policy for Crashers
Inevitably, you're going to have people arrive at the funeral who were not invited. Because of that fact, you're going to need to have a plan in place to deal with any funeral crashers. Some family situations are volatile, which may be a reason for the invitations. You can hire someone or have a family member check invitations at the door or check a guest list. This can become difficult, however, so talk to the funeral home about how you want to handle anyone who was not invited.
When you need help planning any aspect of a loved one's funeral, contact a funeral home near you. The funeral director can help you with all of the difficult decisions involved in that event.
Share25 September 2015
A couple of weeks ago, one of my dear family friend’s suffered the loss of her husband. After a brief illness, he passed away at a local hospital. Immediately after his passing, she started planning the funeral arrangements. She didn’t want his funeral to be a sad occasion. Instead, she wanted the service to celebrate his amazing life. She worked tirelessly with the professional staff at a local funeral home in order to plan the order and type of service for the funeral. On this blog, you will discover tips for planning a funeral service that will celebrate the life of your deceased loved one.