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.

Embalming: What It Is, When It Helps, and When You Can Skip It

Embalming: What It Is, When It Helps, and When You Can Skip It

If you’ve found yourself searching for information about embalming during a period of grief or urgent funeral planning, you’re not alone. Most families aren’t curious about the technical process, they...

Home Burial vs. Pet Cremation: Legal and Emotional Considerations

Home Burial vs. Pet Cremation: Legal and Emotional Considerations

Every pet leaves a unique mark on your home and heart, creating memories that stay long after they are gone. Choosing how to honor those memories—whether to bury them at...

Honoring a Pet in Your Will or Estate Plan

Honoring a Pet in Your Will or Estate Plan

For many people, a dog, cat, or other companion animal is woven into daily life as deeply as any human family member. You notice it in small routines: the expectant...

Budgeting for End-of-Life Pet Care

Budgeting for End-of-Life Pet Care

When a pet starts to slow down or receives a serious diagnosis, your heart usually reacts long before your bank account does. You might be focused on whether they are...

How to Hold a Pet Memorial Service with Family and Friends

How to Hold a Pet Memorial Service with Family and Friends

There is a kind of silence that settles over a home after a pet dies—a silence made not only of the absence of sound, but of the absence of presence....

Pet Aftercare Options Explained: Home Burial, Cemetery Burial, Cremation, and Alternatives

Pet Aftercare Options Explained: Home Burial, Cemetery Burial, Cremation, and Alternatives

When a pet dies, the first feeling is usually not practical at all. It is the silence by the food bowl, the empty spot on the couch, the way the...

How to Create a Pet Memorial Garden at Home: Design Ideas, Plants, and Personal Touches

How to Create a Pet Memorial Garden at Home: Design Ideas, Plants, and Personal Touches

When a pet dies, the whole house feels different. The quiet by the food bowl, the empty spot on the couch, the way the yard suddenly looks a little too...

Funeral Costs Broken Down: What You’re Paying For and How to Compare Price Lists

Funeral Costs Broken Down: What You’re Paying For and How to Compare Price Lists

Funeral planning often comes with unexpected financial decisions. Sitting at a funeral home table, reviewing a stack of papers, you may suddenly find yourself facing line items you’ve never seen...

Epitaph Examples: Gentle Words for Urns, Headstones, and Jewelry

Epitaph Examples: Gentle Words for Urns, Headstones, and Jewelry

There’s a moment in funeral planning that rarely gets discussed. The phone calls have been made, the service is outlined, you’ve chosen between burial and cremation, and then someone hands...

Scattering Ashes vs Keeping an Urn at Home: Emotional, Practical, and Legal Things to Consider

Scattering Ashes vs Keeping an Urn at Home: Emotional, Practical, and Legal Things to Consider

When someone you love is cremated, you don’t just receive a container of ashes. You receive a new kind of responsibility: deciding what to do with ashes in a way...

When You Inherit a Pet: Legal Responsibilities, Emotional Adjustments, and Planning Ahead

When You Inherit a Pet: Legal Responsibilities, Emotional Adjustments, and Planning Ahead

When someone you love dies, you expect to be making decisions about services, funeral planning, and maybe which cremation urns for ashes or cremation jewelry feel right. You may not...

Home Funerals and Family-Led Care: Legal Basics, Preparation, and When It Makes Sense

Home Funerals and Family-Led Care: Legal Basics, Preparation, and When It Makes Sense

When someone dies, many families move almost automatically into a familiar script: call a funeral home, schedule a viewing, let professionals take the lead. Increasingly, though, some families pause and...

Burial Plot Benefits: Why a Cemetery Place Still Matters in a Cremation-First World

Burial Plot Benefits: Why a Cemetery Place Still Matters in a Cremation-First World

When families start talking about final arrangements today, the conversation usually circles around a familiar either-or question: burial or cremation. It can sound like once you choose one path, every...

The Final Walk: Stories of Community Support for Dying Dogs

The Final Walk: Stories of Community Support for Dying Dogs

There is a moment in every dog lover’s life when time slows in a way you never forget. The walks grow shorter. The breathing grows softer. The body that once...

Remembering With Food: Memorial Meals, Favorite Recipes, and Family Traditions After a Death

Remembering With Food: Memorial Meals, Favorite Recipes, and Family Traditions After a Death

Food carries memories. The aroma of a favorite dish, the warmth of a shared meal, and the comfort of familiar flavors can help keep a loved one’s presence alive even...

Planning a Celebration of Life Without a Body or Ashes Present: Ideas and Etiquette

Planning a Celebration of Life Without a Body or Ashes Present: Ideas and Etiquette

Honoring a loved one without a body or ashes present can feel overwhelming, leaving families wondering how to create a service that truly captures the essence of the person they...