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.

10 Meaningful Things to Do With Ashes After Cremation (Ideas, Costs, and How to Choose)

10 Meaningful Things to Do With Ashes After Cremation (Ideas, Costs, and How to Choose)

If you’re holding a box or urn and wondering what to do with ashes, you’re not alone. For many families, the hardest part isn’t choosing cremation. It’s what comes after:...

Scattering Urns and Tubes: How to Choose an Eco-Friendly Option for Spreading Ashes

Scattering Urns and Tubes: How to Choose an Eco-Friendly Option for Spreading Ashes

When families choose cremation, the question that often follows is quietly practical and deeply personal: what to do with ashes. Some people want a permanent place at home. Others want...

Keeping Cremation Ashes at Home in the US: Is It Legal, How to Store Them Safely, and Display Ideas

Keeping Cremation Ashes at Home in the US: Is It Legal, How to Store Them Safely, and Display Ideas

Bringing cremated remains home can feel strangely ordinary and profoundly heavy at the same time. You may set a temporary container on the kitchen table, sign a last form, and...

Can You Scatter Pet Ashes Anywhere? Legal and Etiquette Guide for the US & UK

Can You Scatter Pet Ashes Anywhere? Legal and Etiquette Guide for the US & UK

The first time you hold your pet’s cremains, the questions often arrive in a rush. You may have imagined a peaceful goodbye—at the beach they loved, under the tree where...

Scattering Ashes Ideas: Ceremonies, Etiquette, and U.S. Rules (Land, Water, and Air)

Scattering Ashes Ideas: Ceremonies, Etiquette, and U.S. Rules (Land, Water, and Air)

There is a particular moment many families describe after cremation: the paperwork is done, the phone stops ringing quite as much, and then a quiet question settles in—now what? The...

Flying With Cremated Remains: TSA Rules, Airline Tips, and Best Travel Urns

Flying With Cremated Remains: TSA Rules, Airline Tips, and Best Travel Urns

There are trips you pack for with excitement, and there are trips you pack for with a quiet kind of courage. Traveling with a loved one’s ashes often falls into...

Scattering Ashes in Parks, Forests, and on Hiking Trails: Permissions and Best Practices

Scattering Ashes in Parks, Forests, and on Hiking Trails: Permissions and Best Practices

Scattering the cremated remains of a loved one can be a deeply meaningful part of funeral planning, but it also raises important questions about legality, respect, and environmental stewardship. Whether...

Scattering Ashes at Sea: Laws, Safety, and Ceremony Ideas for Ocean Farewells

Scattering Ashes at Sea: Laws, Safety, and Ceremony Ideas for Ocean Farewells

For many families, an ocean farewell feels like the most honest kind of goodbye. The sea is vast, rhythmic, and steady. It holds memory without needing a marker. And when...

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

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

Traveling with someone’s ashes can feel oddly heavy in a way that isn’t just physical. You’re carrying love, responsibility, and a plan you don’t want to mess up—while moving through...

How to Mail Cremation Ashes Safely for Jewelry or Other Memorial Services

How to Mail Cremation Ashes Safely for Jewelry or Other Memorial Services

If you are reading this, you may be holding something that feels both precious and overwhelming. Maybe a jeweler has sent you a small kit for a ring or pendant....

Coordinating Pet and Human Ashes: Shared Scattering, Joint Memorials, and Future Planning

Coordinating Pet and Human Ashes: Shared Scattering, Joint Memorials, and Future Planning

There are some questions families don’t expect to face until they’re already carrying them. One of them is what it means to honor more than one set of ashes in...

Working with a Pastor or Celebrant for a Scattering of Ashes Ceremony

Working with a Pastor or Celebrant for a Scattering of Ashes Ceremony

A scattering ceremony often starts with a simple wish: to say goodbye in a place that meant something. Then, almost immediately, families realize how many decisions are tucked inside that...

What to Do With Pet Ashes: Options, Rituals, and Meaning

What to Do With Pet Ashes: Options, Rituals, and Meaning

When a beloved pet dies, the quiet that follows can feel unreal. And then, often sooner than you’d like, something tangible arrives: a container, a box, a bag inside a...

Faith and Pet Aftercare: How Different Beliefs View Pet Burial, Cremation, and Scattering

Faith and Pet Aftercare: How Different Beliefs View Pet Burial, Cremation, and Scattering

When a beloved pet dies, grief often arrives in two waves. The first is the ache of absence—the quiet food bowl, the leash that still hangs by the door, the...

Can You Travel With Cremation Jewelry? TSA Screening, Packing Tips & Avoiding Loss

Can You Travel With Cremation Jewelry? TSA Screening, Packing Tips & Avoiding Loss

If you’ve ever stood in an airport line with your mind already stretched thin, you know how quickly the smallest decisions can start to feel enormous. And if you’re traveling...

Travel-Safe Pet Urns: TSA-Friendly Materials, Screening Tips & When to Use a Temporary Container

Travel-Safe Pet Urns: TSA-Friendly Materials, Screening Tips & When to Use a Temporary Container

If you’re reading this, you’re probably trying to do something that sounds simple and somehow feels enormous: flying with pet ashes without turning the airport into another moment of grief....