How to Plan a Life Celebration and Personalize a Memorial Service and Turn it into a Celebration of Life

Planning a Celebration of Life? Use these memorial service ideas to turn a funeral into a memorable Life Celebration. This page contains ideas for creating a personal memorial service. Use one or several of them to turn a run-of-the-mill funeral into a memorable celebration of life. From Memory Tables and Memory Boards to Register Books, there are a lot of ways to make a funeral interesting and unique to your loved one, and to preserve the memories of the guests and family who attend. For more cool funeral ideas, visit What do They Hand Out at Funerals.

Memorial Idea: Create a Memory Table and Memory Boards

Examples:

: Think about your loved ones hobbies and passions. Gather some of the key things that were important to your loved one. At the entrance to the service, have the items displayed on a large table.

: Place items reflecting their hobbies or interests on a table. Perhaps a bowl with their favorite candy or treat, and friends and family can help themselves.

: Albert Litwin proudly served as a Captain in the Army during WWII. He helped plan the D-Day invasion with General Eisenhower. By the looks of those boots, he wasn’t just sitting behind a desk!

: Seeing a person’s hand writing really makes you feel their presence, Albert loved crosswords and seeing his hand writing as he filled in the correct answers is perfect!

: This is a creative way to display postcards from your loved ones’ travel adventures using flowers and various sizes of trees stumps to create some height.

: If your loved one was a traveler, consider making a travel themed memory table. How about a map with pins in all the places they visited? Don’t forget to include their passport and suitcases too.

: Something tells me Albert Litwin played a mean game of cribbage. That enlarged cribbage board is great, I also like the diploma, his eye glasses and funny t-shirt.

: The chalk board announces that the lantern is lit loving memory.

: You may want to write on a notecard, “Look at Sarah’s hole in one on hole 7.” If they liked golf bring in the clubs, tees, scorecards and golf balls.

: As this memorial table shows, he was a sailor and was in the service and a proud American.

: Dave Daly’s hobby was carving wood, on his memorial table his tools and works of art were on display.

: If your loved one liked to bake cookies, consider serving their favorite treat. If they were known for a special cookie, provide the recipe.

Memorial Pocket Charms (click on photos for more info)

: Consider putting pocket charms on the table that reflect your loved one.

: Guests are encouraged to take a charm, and they will put them in their pocket or purse. When they run across it they will remember the departed.

More memorial charms and favors

Memory Boards

Create a memory board photo collage to display at the funeral or memorial service. Guests can gather around the photos and reminisce.

: Gather friends and family around and make it a group effort to put together memory boards. Working on it together can be very therapeutic.

: Memory boards are used similarly to memory tables but items are posted on a board. Our kit helps you create a beautiful photo collage.

Click to order kit for creating professional looking memory boards

How Can I have Family and Friends Share Their Memories?

Memorial Notecards: (click for more info)

Consider lined 3” x 5” cards that say, “My Special Memory of You ”. They become a reflection of ancestors’ lives for generations to come. They are available for purchase here: Memorial gifts and cards

: Have your guests fill out these share memory cards at the funeral to capture special memories of your loved one.

: You only have one chance to collect everyone’s memories. These butterfly memory cards are handed to friends and family as they walk into the service. Then hang them on a memory tree to be displayed.

Memory Trees are beautiful way to collect memories and thoughts from the guests. The memory cards are tied onto trees like leaves. View this page for examples and ideas.

Memory Books / Guest Books:

Guest books are not very practical as they require people to wait in line at the service. Unless feelings and memories are shared, what is the long term use of a guest book? If feelings and memories are shared, the wait could become very long and delay the service.

When planning a celebration of life you may want to consider a memory book/guest book/photo album combination. This register book is ideal for capturing the essence of the person, their passions, hobbies, interests, accomplishments and family history. You’ll want to make completing the book a family activity. Encourage children, grandchildren and all family members to participate. It will be therapeutic and rewarding; collecting photos, memory cards, notes and letters. Share friends and family’s personal memories by inserting the “My Special Memory of You” cards into the book. Additionally, the book can be used as a guest book at the life celebration. This book will be treasured for generations to come.

Writing Letters as a Form of Grieving

Many grief counselors recommend letter writing as a way to begin to work through the grief process. It’s becoming more popular for the host of the service to suggest attendees bring a letter to the departed. By writing their thoughts they will be able to express how they are feeling. People also want to contributing in some way to the service. The letters are commonly placed in the casket (some caskets now have drawers especially for this purpose). If the person is cremated the letters are included placed inside the urn.

: Another idea for the person who liked to read, bring their favorite books to the service. Place them on or next to the memory table. Next to the books create a sign that says, “John was an avid reader. Please feel free to take one of his books and enjoy in his memory.”

: Did your loved one like to write? How about setting up vintage typewriters and invite family and friends to share their memories. It would be really wonderful if the typewriter(s) belonged to the departed.

Unique Flower Arrangements

Visit our Unique Flower Arrangements for Funerals page for a bunch of cool ideas for special flower arrangements that can personalize a celebration of life.

Using Photos Creatively

Photos can be incorporated into the service. View this page for some cool funeral photo ideas: Unique Funeral Photo Ideas.

How can I help my guests connect?

One of our customers named Linda Lee provided everyone with name tags when they walked in. Her mother was 85 years old and most of her friends were about the same age and many were suffering from memory loss. She didn’t want her mother’s friends to be embarrassed for not remembering names of people they hadn’t seen in years. Her mother’s favorite color was pink so she got plain white labels from the office supply store and put a pink border on them using

Nametags for Funerals

the computer. The pink bordered tags were then given to a couple close friends who sat at the front on the reception area at a table writing out name tags. The tags not only said the person’s name but the relationship to her mother. For example, Esther Hodges (High School Friend, Class of 1938). It’s rare that everyone knows each other at a service. If everyone has a name tag that says not only the person’s name but the relation to the deceased it makes the service much more personal. The name tags also gives guests conversations starters.

Download our nametag template for Avery 5164 stickers: Nametag Word Document Pink (Microsoft Word Document) or Nametag Template for Word: Dark Green

MORE WONDERFUL AND UNIQUE IDEAS TO TURN A FUNERAL INTO A CELEBRATION OF LIFE

View more resources for planning a funeral:
Funeral poems and memorial verses. Funeral and memorial songs.

How to write an obituary. How to give a funeral eulogy.

Have you found these ideas helpful? Check out this life celebration guide. The guide is downloadable with everything you need to create a personalized memorial service. It is only $7.50 and includes a handy planning checklist. Planning a Celebration of Life

Planning a Celebration of Life Guidebook