Making funeral arrangements before cremations Greenbelt, MD involves several steps that must be taken once someone has died and continued until after the cremation. It is helpful if the deceased person has left funeral information and instructions, because it will make it easier to do each of these things.  

The first step of making funeral arrangements is make the initial calls after the person has died. The very first call, if the person died at home, is to emergency services or, if the deceased was in home hospice care, to the hospice organization. Hospice will contact the funeral home for transportation of the body; emergency services may or may not do this for you, so if they don’t, you will need to contact the funeral home. You will also need to contact immediate family, close friends, and, if the deceased was employed at the time of death, the workplace.  

The next step is the transportation of the deceased from the place of death to the funeral home. The funeral home will take care of transporting the body.  

If funeral services are to held before cremation, the next step will be to plan the services. If the deceased left instructions for this, that will make this step easier, but if not, a few general elements are part of most funeral services. Funeral home staff will help make the necessary arrangements for the funeral service.  

Someone will need to coordinate the service. Typically, services can include scriptural or literary readings, eulogies, and music that reflect the life of the deceased. You will need to appoint the people who will participate in the service and the order of the service.  

You will need to write an obituary. Since most funeral homes now have digital obituary pages, it will be most cost-effective to have the funeral home put a death notice in the newspaper – newspapers charge by the word, so long obituaries can be expensive to put in the newspaper – with a link to the full obituary on the funeral home’s website.  

Obituaries should include date of death (do not include exact date of birth because it doesn’t take much information for identity thieves to get enough to commit fraud), age, and city and state only. Do not include a street address. Unscrupulous people scan obituaries for houses that will be vacant during funeral services to target them for robbery. Obituaries should highlight milestones in the deceased’s life, include immediate family who died before the deceased, and surviving immediate family. Specify how the deceased’s memory should be honored – flowers or charitable donations – and include funeral service date, time, and location.  

For cremations, you can either purchase a fully-combustible casket from the funeral home for the viewing and funeral service, or you can rent one. If you rent, the body will be transferred to a fully-combustible casket after the funeral service and the body will be cremated.  

After cremations, the cremains will be returned to you and your family. Additionally, the funeral home will supplied death certificates, which you will need to wrap up the deceased’s affairs. Although you’ll have to pay for additional copies, it’s best to get at least 20 copies of the death certificate (if the deceased’s estate was large and extensive, you’ll need more copies).  

Once you have the cremains, you and your family can decide what you want to do with them.  

If you want to know more about funeral service arrangements before cremations Greenbelt, MD, our experienced staff at Donald V. Borgwardt Funeral Home, P.A. can assist you. You can come see us in person at our funeral home at 4400 Powder Mill Rd., Beltsville, MD, 20705, or you can call us today at (301) 937-1707.  

Services for cremations Beltsville, MD are designed to help remember, memorialize, and honor someone who has chosen to be cremated. Too often, people are unaware that there are many ways to remember someone who has died and is being cremated, including having a viewing and a traditional funeral service.  

There are, in general, three types of cremations services.  

The first type of cremation service consists of a viewing, a funeral service, and then the cremation. Your choice of caskets is diverse. Funeral homes will let you rent a fancy casket for the viewing and funeral service. After the funeral service, the deceased will be placed in a fully-combustible casket for the actual cremation.   

However, fully-combustible caskets come in many attractive styles that are acceptable for funeral viewings and funeral services. The funeral home will have several different styles to choose from and they will include a liner and a pillow (which will be removed before cremation takes place).  

The body will be preserved for the viewing. The viewing is the time when mourners can pay their respects to the deceased person and offer support, encouragement, and comfort to the grieving family. Viewings usually last two hours and take place right before the funeral services.   

Funeral services can include scriptural or literary readings, eulogies from friends and family, a pastor’s, priest’s, or rabbi’s discourse, and music (recorded or live). If there is no religious affiliation, the funeral director will oversee the funeral service and coordinate all the parts that are included.  

After the funeral service, if the casket is rented, the deceased’s body will be placed into a fully-combustible casket, and cremation will follow. After cremation, the remains of the deceased will be returned to the family to do with as they wish.  

In the second type of cremation service, the deceased is cremated, and the family holds a memorial service at a later date. Often, the urn containing the ashes of the deceased person is present at the memorial service.  

Memorial service formats are basically free-style. They may consist of a trip to the deceased’s favorite place, or they may take place in a community center where food and drinks are provided and friends and family are encouraged to tell stories about the deceased person. Other times, memorial services may closely resemble funeral services, with a structured presentation that includes readings, eulogies and music.  

Memorial services can be held at any time, which often beneficial for people who live far away or when a trip to a central meeting place is planned. This gives everyone time to make plans to be there without having to hurry through the process of trying to get time off of work and find transportation that is affordable.  

The third type of cremation service is direct cremation. There are many people who simply don’t want either a memorial service or a funeral service. In direct cremation, the deceased is sent from where death occurred directly to the crematory. The body will be prepared, identified by the family, and then cremated with the cremains being returned to the family afterward.  

To request services for cremations Beltsville, MD, talk with our experienced team at Donald V. Borgwardt Funeral Home, P.A. You can also see us in person at our funeral home at 4400 Powder Mill Rd., Beltsville, MD, 20705, or you can contact us today at (301) 937-1707.  

For funerals before Burtonsville, MD cremations, what people wear is important because this is a service designed to support, comfort, and encourage a family who has lost someone they love. The focus should be on the family, not on the mourners. So always keep that in mind when choosing clothes to wear to a funeral service. You don’t want to draw attention to yourself.  

Because funeral services before cremations are somber in tone, the best rule of thumb is to dress as conservatively as possible. While you don’t necessarily have to wear black, which is color associated with mourning throughout the world, you should avoid bright colors and prints or designs.   

Necklines, hemlines, and fit for women should be modest. Avoid low-cut blouses or dresses, short skirts, and spandex. Modest skirts and blouses, dresses, and pantsuits that don’t draw attention to cleavage, curves or thighs are acceptable.  

Women should keep their accessories very simple. Do not wear high-heel shoes or open-toed shoes, including flip-flops. Instead choose a basic flat shoe that will enable you to walk quietly inside or navigate easily through grass if the funeral service is outside. The less jewelry you wear, the better. Of course, wedding and engagement rings are appropriate, but it’s best to forego any other type of jewelry except a watch.  

Men who are attending funeral services before cremations should not wear jeans, t-shirts, baseball caps – in fact, all caps or hats should be removed one inside the building where the funeral service is being held – and tennis shoes or sandals. Men can wear black, gray, or navy suits with a dress shirt and tie, but a dark-colored sports coat, a dress shirt open at the collar, and dress pants with dress shoes is also considered appropriate attire for men attending funeral services.  

There are exceptions to these rules, but they are very specific. If the funeral service is for a military veteran, it is appropriate for military personnel to wear their dress military uniforms to the service. Additionally, some creeds and religions require a specific kind of dress, so be sure to honor the deceased person by adhering to those particular dress codes.  

If you’re on the fence about whether something you want to wear to a funeral service is appropriate, there are a few clothing don’ts that should help you make a decision about the clothes:  

• If it’s your sexiest outfit, don’t wear it. 
• If it’s a cropped top or low-cut pants, don’t wear it. 
• If it’s going to call attention to you, don’t wear it. 
• If it’s big, bright, shiny jewelry, don’t wear it. 
• If it’s not something you would wear to a professional job interview, don’t wear it. 
• If it’s a sleeveless dress, don’t wear it unless you also wear a jacket or sweater over it to cover your bare shoulders. 
• If it makes noise, don’t wear it. 
• If it is an open-toed shoe, don’t wear it. 

A couple of other things to consider when going to a funeral service is to cover any tattoos, and to avoid scent products like perfumes, lotions, and body sprays. Many people are sensitive to the chemicals in these products and have an allergic reaction when they come in contact with them.   

If you need more idea about what to wear to funeral services before Burtonsville, MD cremations, our knowledgeable staff at Donald V. Borgwardt Funeral Home, P.A. can help. You can visit us in person at our funeral home at 4400 Powder Mill Rd., Beltsville, MD, 20705, or you can call us today at (301) 937-1707.