How to Plan a Celebration of Life Service
Instead of plenty of wailing and mourning, a celebration of life service allows family and friends a non-traditional way to honour their loved one who has died. Indeed, we’ve grown used to people mourning the individual’s death. But with a Celebration of Life services, guests celebrate the life of the deceased as they think back over their life.
Often a celebration of life service replaces a traditional funeral. So, instead of if being a sombre event where there is a lot of crying, guests chat and share stories. They talk about the good times they had with the person who died. You can invite family, friends and colleagues. But some people prefer to have a small, intimate gathering with just family and some close friends.
A Celebration of Life of the Deceased
A celebration of life service does not usually involve a church. Usually, those who select this kind of funeral try to keep the service in keeping with the lifestyle of the person who has passed on. So you 
can hold it in the country, in somebody’s beautiful garden or on the beach. Then again you can conduct it in the favourite place of the deceased. And the attractive part about this kind of celebratory services is that there are no rules as to the programme. Remember that the families just want to feel comfortable, which means that a religious officiant or a celebrant can preside over the service.
A Typical Celebration of Life Programme
Music. Can be live or recorded music, hymns, pop or classical music.
Refreshments. Some people like the idea of gathering in a casual restaurant after the service.
Momentos. There can be photo albums, scrapbooks, photo albums or memory boards on display. Or you can have a non-stop repetitive video slideshow of the deceased. And you can give a memorial booklet with photographs, poems and other interesting information to all who attend the service
More Ideas
A memorial table. An excellent way to indicate some of the hobbies and interests of the person. For instance, if the individual was a hiker, you can put their hiking boots on the table, some rocks and grass from the countryside they loved to hike in and some other appropriate items.
Flowers
Unique funeral flower arrangements. Sometimes florists just can’t seem to come up with ideas that you want to use. But you don’t have to use fresh flowers, lovely though they are. So you can tie one flower and a candle onto a tiny photograph of the deceased, then tie it into the branches of a tree, and tell everyone to help themselves to one.
And if you want to steer away from flowers entirely, you can even invest in some small bottles from a bottle and glass store, put two pieces of delicious shortbread into each one and then hang these in the branches of a tree as well. You can even put some seed cards in these bottles with a suggestion for the person to plant it as a reminder of the deceased.
Get Some Cheer
Why don’t you take a look at Next Gen Memorials? They offer a host of fabulous ideas to hold unique but cost effective celebration of life services. Next Gen Memorials was developed to provide inspirational ideas on how to personalise a celebration of life service. And they want to offer people choices and ideas which will bring comfort, hope and even some cheer during a difficult time.
To get a FREE funeral cover quote, just complete and send the form on this page
All info was correct at time of publishing