Choosing Funeral Service Participants

When planning funeral services at funeral homes in Oakwood, OH, people have many decisions to make about how they want to honor and remember their deceased loved one. One decision that will need to be made is when the funeral will be. Another decision you’ll need to make is where to hold the funeral service.

You will need to, if your loved one had specific wishes about the kind of funeral they wanted, make sure that you honor their wishes. Perhaps they wanted to be cremated. Perhaps they wanted to be buried. Perhaps they had a detailed document outlining everything they wanted to be included in their funeral service.

However, if your loved one did not leave any specific funeral instructions and they never discussed any funeral details with you, then it will be up to you to decide what kind of funeral your loved one will have.

You will have to decide what kind of funeral service your loved one would have wanted. Would they have wanted a traditional funeral service, or would they have wanted a celebration of their life?

What would your loved one have wanted to be included in their funeral service? Would they have wanted favorite poems, favorite quotes, or favorite passages of prose read? Would they have wanted eulogies? Would they have wanted spiritual comfort included? Would they have wanted music and, if so, what songs would they have chosen?

It may surprise you, as you consider these questions, how many participants there could be in your loved one’s funeral service. In addition, it is traditional to have pallbearers who are responsible for moving your loved one’s casket from the funeral home to the hearse to go to the cemetery and from the hearse to the gravesite at the cemetery.

Before you make decisions about who should participate in your loved one’s funeral service, you should decide how long the service should last. It goes without saying that the more people who participate in your loved one’s funeral service, the longer the service will last.

However, the funeral service is a chance for you and your family, as well as other mourners, to say goodbye to your loved one, so the length of time for the service should not be the primary factor you use in planning it.

If your loved one had favorite poems, quotes, or excerpts of prose that defined their lives, then it is appropriate to include some of those in the funeral service. Once you’ve identified the ones you want, you need to designate specific people to read them. Generally, there are two or three reading selections during a funeral service.

Next, if you want eulogies to be presented during your loved one’s funeral service, you need to decide how many you want. Eulogies generally last for 10 or 15 minutes, so you will need to allot that amount of time for each eulogy given.

Typically, family members or very close friends give eulogies during funeral services. The purpose of the eulogy is to highlight your loved one’s personality, values, and impact. Only people who knew them well can speak to these.

Spiritual comfort is usually given by a clergy member (who also is generally the officiant of the service).

Music can be performed live (you’ll need to decide who the performers should be) or it can be recorded music (the funeral home can provide this).

Last, you’ll need to select at least six pallbearers for your loved one’s casket. Pallbearers are usually friends or family members of your loved one.

If you’d like guidance about who should participate in funeral services at funeral homes in Oakwood, OH, our compassionate and experienced staff at Glickler Funeral Home & Cremation Service can help.