Funeral Planning Guide for the Bereaved

As you’re planning funerals at funeral homes in Greenbelt, MD, you will find that trying to make many decisions while you’re grieving can be very difficult. However, your funeral director will help with every single aspect, so you will not have to go through the funeral planning process all by yourself.

One of the first decisions you will have to make is where you want to hold the funeral service. Traditionally, funeral services are held at the funeral home or in a place of worship. However, they can also be held somewhere that may have been a special or favorite place of your loved one. When you are choosing the location for the funeral service, you should consider whether it is an appropriate venue for the type of funeral service that you are planning to have.

The next decision that you’ll need to make is about the service itself. You’ll need to decide who will perform the service. While this is often a clergy member, you are free to choose anyone you would like to perform it.

If you want to include eulogies in the funeral service for your loved one, you need to identify the people that you would like to give eulogies, and then make sure they are willing to do them. Not everyone, even if they were very close to your deceased loved one, will be comfortable trying to put a eulogy together and/or speaking in front of people.

Please don’t be upset if someone you’d like to give a eulogy declines to do so. Respect that they cared deeply for your loved one, but they may not be able to express that in the public manner that a eulogy requires.

Another decision that you’ll need to make about the funeral service is whether you want to include a video tribute to your loved one, have a photo display that chronicles the life and achievements of your loved one, and music that your loved one may have liked or would have enjoyed.

None of these is required elements of a funeral service, although music of some sort is typically included in a funeral service, but these are elements that make the funeral service more personalized and will help mourners who attend learn more about what made your loved one so special.

An additional element in the funeral that will need to be decided is military honors. If your deceased loved one was a military veteran, they are entitled to military honors (they are also entitled to free burial, with a free gravestone or grave marker, in a national cemetery).

Military honors are performed by either a local National Guard unit or veterans organization. They include a United States flag, which is presented to the deceased’s family, and TAPs (which may be played live or which is recorded). You will need your loved one’s military separation orders (a copy of Form DD-214) to give to the funeral director, who will make the arrangements for military honors to be presented.

You will also need to decide whether you want an open or closed casket at the funeral service, as well as who you want to serve as pallbearers.

Finally, you’ll need to decide whether you want a public or private burial and whether or not you want a service performed at the grave site before your loved one is buried.

If you’d like to know more about planning funerals at funeral homes in Greenbelt, MD, you can talk with our knowledgeable team at Donald V. Borgwardt Funeral Home, P.A. You can visit our funeral home at 4400 Powder Mill Rd., Beltsville, MD, 20705, or you can call us today at (301) 937-1707.