The Funeral.com Journal

Resources to help you create tributes as unique as the people (and pets) you love. Learn how engraving, photos, colors, and symbols add meaning; discover scattering rituals and at-home memorial ideas. We focus on the details that matter—because small choices can carry a lifetime of comfort.

What Are Human Ashes After Cremation? Weight, Texture, Safety, and Memorial Options - Funeral.com, Inc.

What Are Human Ashes After Cremation? Weight, Texture, Safety, and Memorial Options

The call to come pick up a loved one’s cremated remains often lands in a strange place in the heart. The hardest logistics may be finished—forms signed, decisions made, the...

How to Transfer Ashes Into an Urn: Step-by-Step Instructions and Sealing Tips - Funeral.com, Inc.

How to Transfer Ashes Into an Urn: Step-by-Step Instructions and Sealing Tips

When a family chooses cremation, there is often a quiet moment later that no one warns you about: the moment the temporary container is on the table, the urn is...

What Are Cremation Ashes Made Of? Composition, Texture, and What to Do Next - Funeral.com, Inc.

What Are Cremation Ashes Made Of? Composition, Texture, and What to Do Next

If you’ve ever wondered what are cremation ashes made of, you’re usually asking for reassurance as much as information. The word “ashes” makes many people picture fireplace ash: soft, black...

Do You Need an Urn Vault to Bury Ashes? Cemetery Requirements and Cost Breakdown - Funeral.com, Inc.

Do You Need an Urn Vault to Bury Ashes? Cemetery Requirements and Cost Breakdown

If you’re planning to bury cremated remains in a cemetery, it’s common to feel blindsided by one unexpected question: do you need a vault for a cremation urn? Families often...

How to Personalize a Cremation Urn: Engraving, Photos, Colors & Custom Designs - Funeral.com, Inc.

How to Personalize a Cremation Urn: Engraving, Photos, Colors & Custom Designs

Personalizing an urn can be one of the gentlest parts of memorial planning. Even when everything feels unfamiliar—paperwork, decisions, timelines—adding a name, a photo, a color that feels right, or...

Do You Get All the Ashes After Cremation? What Families Receive and Common Myths - Funeral.com, Inc.

Do You Get All the Ashes After Cremation? What Families Receive and Common Myths

It’s one of the most common worries families carry quietly: do you get all the ashes after cremation, or is something missing? The question makes sense. Cremation happens out of...

What Are Cremation Ashes Made Of? Composition, Texture, and What Families Receive - Funeral.com, Inc.

What Are Cremation Ashes Made Of? Composition, Texture, and What Families Receive

The word “ashes” is familiar, so people expect something like fireplace ash—black, soft, and powdery. Then cremation becomes personal, and the reality looks different: pale gray or off-white material, often...

Who Owns Cremation Ashes? Custody Rights, Scattering Rules, and Common Legal Pitfalls - Funeral.com, Inc.

Who Owns Cremation Ashes? Custody Rights, Scattering Rules, and Common Legal Pitfalls

When families choose cremation, there’s often an assumption that the hard decisions are behind them. The arrangements are made, the paperwork is signed, and the cremated remains are returned. And...

Where to Put the Urn After Cremation: 15 Practical and Meaningful Options for Ashes - Funeral.com, Inc.

Where to Put the Urn After Cremation: 15 Practical and Meaningful Options for Ashes

After cremation, many families feel stuck on a question that sounds simple but isn’t: where to put the urn after cremation. The truth is that this decision is rarely just...

How Long Do Cremated Ashes Last? Storage, Scattering at Sea & Environmental Notes - Funeral.com, Inc.

How Long Do Cremated Ashes Last? Storage, Scattering at Sea & Environmental Notes

When families ask how long do cremated ashes last, what they usually mean is, “Will anything happen to them if we keep them for years?” The reassuring answer is that...

TSA-Approved Urns and Flying With Cremated Remains: Airline Rules and Travel Tips - Funeral.com, Inc.

TSA-Approved Urns and Flying With Cremated Remains: Airline Rules and Travel Tips

There are trips you pack for with excitement, and there are trips you pack for with a quiet kind of courage. If you’re flying with cremated remains, you’re not just...

How to Bury Cremation Ashes and Urns: Cemetery Rules, Home Burial, and Green Options - Funeral.com, Inc.

How to Bury Cremation Ashes and Urns: Cemetery Rules, Home Burial, and Green Options

After cremation, many families eventually come back to the same question: what should happen next? For some people, keeping the urn at home feels right. For others, the goal is...

Do You Get All the Ashes After Cremation? What’s Returned and How Collection Works - Funeral.com, Inc.

Do You Get All the Ashes After Cremation? What’s Returned and How Collection Works

After a cremation, families often describe an unexpected moment of worry: the paperwork is done, the calls quiet down, and then someone asks the question that feels almost too anxious...

How Long Do Biodegradable Urns Last? Breakdown Times for Burial and Water Ceremonies - Funeral.com, Inc.

How Long Do Biodegradable Urns Last? Breakdown Times for Burial and Water Ceremonies

There’s a particular kind of quiet that shows up after a cremation—after the phone calls, after the logistics, after the first wave of decisions. It often arrives when the ashes...

Why People Wear Cremation Jewelry: Meaning, Comfort, and What to Know About Urn Necklaces - Funeral.com, Inc.

Why People Wear Cremation Jewelry: Meaning, Comfort, and What to Know About Urn Necklaces

The first time many families see a piece of cremation jewelry, it isn’t in a display case. It’s in the quiet space after everything “official” has happened—after the calls, the paperwork,...

Can You Fly With Cremated Ashes? TSA Rules, Best Urn Materials, and Travel Checklist - Funeral.com, Inc.

Can You Fly With Cremated Ashes? TSA Rules, Best Urn Materials, and Travel Checklist

Some trips are packed with excitement. Others are packed with care. If you’re reading this because you need to fly with cremated ashes, you’re probably carrying more than a suitcase—you’re carrying...