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.

Memorial Bench Dedication: How to Place a Bench in a Park (and Inscription Wording Ideas)

Memorial Bench Dedication: How to Place a Bench in a Park (and Inscription Wording Ideas)

A memorial bench can feel like a gentle kind of permanence. It doesn’t ask anyone to walk through a funeral home door or find the right words on a hard...

How Much Does a Headstone Cost? Pricing for Flat Markers, Uprights, and Engraving - Funeral.com, Inc.

How Much Does a Headstone Cost? Pricing for Flat Markers, Uprights, and Engraving

When you’re planning a burial, the headstone decision often arrives later than you expect. The service may already be behind you, the paperwork is still unfolding, and then a cemetery...

25 Ways to Personalize a Funeral or Memorial Service (Simple, Meaningful Ideas) - Funeral.com, Inc.

25 Ways to Personalize a Funeral or Memorial Service (Simple, Meaningful Ideas)

When you’re planning a funeral or memorial, it can feel like you’re trying to do two hard things at once: make practical decisions while also trying to honor a life...

Creating a Home Altar for Remembrance: Secular Ideas and Simple Rituals - Funeral.com, Inc.

Creating a Home Altar for Remembrance: Secular Ideas and Simple Rituals

A home altar doesn’t have to be religious to be real. It can be as simple as a small surface you return to when your mind keeps circling the same...

Wall-Mounted Niches at Home: A Space-Saving Memorial Shrine Guide - Funeral.com, Inc.

Wall-Mounted Niches at Home: A Space-Saving Memorial Shrine Guide

If you’re looking for a way to honor someone you love without giving up a table, a mantle, or a whole corner of a room, a wall-mounted niche can feel...

Lighting Your Memorial: Lamps and Candle Ideas for Urn Displays - Funeral.com, Inc.

Lighting Your Memorial: Lamps and Candle Ideas for Urn Displays

When a family brings ashes home, the first days can feel strangely practical and deeply unreal at the same time. You may find yourself setting a box on a shelf,...

What Does Gray Symbolize? Color Psychology, Meaning, and How to Use Gray in Memorials - Funeral.com, Inc.

What Does Gray Symbolize? Color Psychology, Meaning, and How to Use Gray in Memorials

There are moments in grief when bright choices feel too loud. You may be planning a service, designing a program, selecting flowers, or setting up a small remembrance space at...

What Gray Symbolizes in Grief and Memorials (and When to Use It) - Funeral.com, Inc.

What Gray Symbolizes in Grief and Memorials (and When to Use It)

When a family is grieving, they often describe the same feeling in different words: they want something that doesn’t ask too much of them. Not too bright. Not too loud....

Butterfly Symbolism After Loss: Dove, Butterfly, and Tree of Life Meanings in Memorials - Funeral.com, Inc.

Butterfly Symbolism After Loss: Dove, Butterfly, and Tree of Life Meanings in Memorials

After a death, people often discover something surprising: it is not always words that bring the first real comfort. Sometimes it is an image that arrives quietly and keeps returning....

How to Display an Urn at Home: Placement, Décor Ideas, and Respectful Memorial Setups - Funeral.com, Inc.

How to Display an Urn at Home: Placement, Décor Ideas, and Respectful Memorial Setups

If you’re searching for guidance on how to display an urn at home, there’s a good chance you’re doing it in the middle of a week that already feels unreal....

Memorial Bench Ideas: How to Choose, Personalize, and Place a Bench Tribute - Funeral.com, Inc.

Memorial Bench Ideas: How to Choose, Personalize, and Place a Bench Tribute

A memorial bench is one of those rare tributes that does two things at once. It marks a life that mattered, and it also serves the people who are still...

A Simple Memorial Service Script You Can Customize - Funeral.com, Inc.

A Simple Memorial Service Script You Can Customize

If you’re searching for a memorial service script, you’re probably not trying to write something poetic. You’re trying to guide a room through love and loss without feeling like you’re...

How to Ask Someone to Speak at a Memorial (Ask to Give a Eulogy) - Funeral.com, Inc.

How to Ask Someone to Speak at a Memorial (Ask to Give a Eulogy)

There’s a particular kind of nervousness that shows up when you’re planning a memorial service. It’s not only the logistics. It’s the human part: deciding who should speak, and then...

Obituary vs Death Notice: What’s the Difference - Funeral.com, Inc.

Obituary vs Death Notice: What’s the Difference

When someone dies, the first writing task families face is often not the eulogy, not the thank-you notes, and not even the paperwork. It’s the announcement. People are waiting for...

Burial With a Memorial Service Later: Planning and Timing - Funeral.com, Inc.

Burial With a Memorial Service Later: Planning and Timing

Some decisions arrive quietly, almost as a relief. A loved one dies, and the family realizes that trying to coordinate everything at once—travel, faith traditions, work schedules, children’s school calendars,...

Bench Headstones and Estate Monuments: What They Are, Costs, and Cemetery Rules to Know - Funeral.com, Inc.

Bench Headstones and Estate Monuments: What They Are, Costs, and Cemetery Rules to Know

Some memorial decisions arrive quietly. You may be walking through a cemetery after a service, or months later on a day when grief shows up without warning. You notice how...