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.

From Decisions to Comfort: A Family Guide to Cremation Urns, Pet Urns, Cremation Jewelry, and What to Do With Ashes

From Decisions to Comfort: A Family Guide to Cremation Urns, Pet Urns, Cremation Jewelry, and What to Do With Ashes

Most people don’t go looking for cremation urns for ashes because it sounds like a project they’re ready for. It usually starts with a quieter, heavier moment: the call from...

Funeral Etiquette for Immediate Family: What to Wear, Where to Sit, and How to Navigate the Service

Funeral Etiquette for Immediate Family: What to Wear, Where to Sit, and How to Navigate the Service

If you are immediate family at a funeral, you are rarely “just attending.” You are grieving, you are being watched with gentle concern, and you are often carrying invisible responsibilities—answering...

What to Do When Family Can’t Travel: Remote Memorial Ideas That Still Feel Close

What to Do When Family Can’t Travel: Remote Memorial Ideas That Still Feel Close

When someone dies and the people who love them are scattered—across states, across countries, across schedules that do not bend easily—grief can pick up an extra edge. Families often say...

How to Host a Celebration of Life at Home

How to Host a Celebration of Life at Home

A celebration of life at home can be one of the most comforting ways to gather after a loss, because it lets people show up in a space that already...

Memorial Service Ideas for Families Who Don’t Want “Traditional”

Memorial Service Ideas for Families Who Don’t Want “Traditional”

If you’re reading this, you may already know what you don’t want. You don’t want a room that feels stiff or scripted. You don’t want traditions that don’t fit your...

What to Do If a Family Member Is Uncomfortable With Ashes at Home

What to Do If a Family Member Is Uncomfortable With Ashes at Home

After a cremation, families often assume the “hard decisions” are over. And then the ashes come home, and a different kind of decision begins—one that can feel surprisingly loaded. One...

Keeping Ashes at Home: What’s Normal, What’s Not

Keeping Ashes at Home: What’s Normal, What’s Not

When a family brings cremated remains home, the moment can feel surprisingly ordinary and strangely heavy at the same time. The container might arrive in a simple bag inside a...

Scattering vs Keeping Ashes at Home: How Families Decide

Scattering vs Keeping Ashes at Home: How Families Decide

After cremation, there is often a quiet moment that surprises people. The phone calls slow down. The paperwork is mostly done. The funeral home returns the remains, usually in a...

Mailing Keepsakes to Relatives: Safer Ways to Do It

Mailing Keepsakes to Relatives: Safer Ways to Do It

There are a few moments in grief that feel deceptively small, but weigh a lot. Putting a portion of someone’s ashes into a box, taping it closed, and trusting the...

What If Family Disagrees About Who Gets Ashes?

What If Family Disagrees About Who Gets Ashes?

Few families expect funeral planning to include conflict. Yet disagreements about cremated remains are common—not because anyone is trying to be difficult, but because grief magnifies the meaning of “who...

A Calm Family Conversation Script for Sharing Ashes

A Calm Family Conversation Script for Sharing Ashes

There’s a moment after cremation that many families don’t expect to feel so tender: someone asks, “So… what are we doing with the ashes?” It sounds practical. It is practical....

How to Divide Ashes Among Family Members

How to Divide Ashes Among Family Members

When a loved one is cremated, the moment the ashes come home can feel surprisingly heavy. Not because the container is large, but because it holds a decision you may...

Urn Colors and Finishes: How They Look in Real Homes

Urn Colors and Finishes: How They Look in Real Homes

The first time many families really “see” an urn isn’t in a showroom. It’s at home, in ordinary light, on a shelf or a table that’s already full of daily...

What If Someone Dies Without a Next of Kin (No Next of Kin Cremation Decisions)

What If Someone Dies Without a Next of Kin (No Next of Kin Cremation Decisions)

It is one of the most unsettling calls a person can receive: a hospital social worker says someone has died, and there is no family listed. A landlord says a...

When a Family Chooses No Service at All—and How to Still Memorialize

When a Family Chooses No Service at All—and How to Still Memorialize

The question often arrives quietly, not in a chapel. A funeral home or cremation provider asks, “Would you like to schedule a service?” And someone answers, almost reflexively, “No. They...

Private Family Viewing: Practical Details and Expectations (Private Viewing After Death)

Private Family Viewing: Practical Details and Expectations (Private Viewing After Death)

There is a specific kind of quiet that follows a death: the quiet of paperwork, phone calls, and decisions being made while your heart is still catching up. If a...