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.

Cremation Urn Materials & Styles: A U.S. Buyer’s Guide to Types, Durability, and Which Urns Can Be Buried

Cremation Urn Materials & Styles: A U.S. Buyer’s Guide to Types, Durability, and Which Urns Can Be Buried

Most families don’t start by thinking about cremation urn materials. They start with a more human question: “What do we do next?” Once cremation is chosen, decisions that once felt...

How Much Do Cremation Urns Cost? Typical Prices + Ways to Save

How Much Do Cremation Urns Cost? Typical Prices + Ways to Save

The question often arrives quietly. You might be sitting at the kitchen table with a folder of paperwork, or scrolling on your phone after everyone else has gone to bed....

Glass Cremation Urns for Ashes: Crystal Styles, Art Glass Designs, Pros/Cons, and Care Tips

Glass Cremation Urns for Ashes: Crystal Styles, Art Glass Designs, Pros/Cons, and Care Tips

When a family chooses cremation, the urn often becomes the place where love “lands.” It may sit on a shelf beside a photo, travel to a memorial service, or rest...

Custom Cremation Urns: Photo Urns, 3D-Printed Designs, Engraving Proofs, and Lead Times

Custom Cremation Urns: Photo Urns, 3D-Printed Designs, Engraving Proofs, and Lead Times

When a family chooses cremation, the hardest decisions are rarely the technical ones. The questions that linger tend to be emotional and deeply human: How do we honor them in...

Companion Urns for Couples: Sizes, Two-Chamber vs Single, Materials, and Personalization Ideas

Companion Urns for Couples: Sizes, Two-Chamber vs Single, Materials, and Personalization Ideas

When two lives have been intertwined for years—or decades—it can feel natural to want their memorial to reflect that same closeness. For some couples, that means planning a shared resting...

Types of Cremation Urns (and Which Last Longest): Metal, Wood, Ceramic, Biodegradable & Keepsakes

Types of Cremation Urns (and Which Last Longest): Metal, Wood, Ceramic, Biodegradable & Keepsakes

When a family chooses cremation, the next question often arrives quietly but insistently: what do we do now, and what should hold the remains? In the early days, an urn...

Green Burial vs Cremation: Eco-Friendly Options Including Natural Burial and Human Composting

Green Burial vs Cremation: Eco-Friendly Options Including Natural Burial and Human Composting

Most families don’t come to this choice as “environmental shoppers.” They come as people who are grieving, or planning ahead with love. When you compare green burial vs cremation, you’re really...

Cremation Cemetery Memorial Options: Columbarium Niches, Urn Gardens, Benches, and More

Cremation Cemetery Memorial Options: Columbarium Niches, Urn Gardens, Benches, and More

When a family chooses cremation, what comes next is rarely “just pick an urn.” It is often a deeper question about place, permanence, and how you want remembrance to feel...

How to Choose the Right Pet Urn: Size Guide, Materials, and Top Memorial Styles

How to Choose the Right Pet Urn: Size Guide, Materials, and Top Memorial Styles

Choosing a pet urn is one of those decisions that looks simple on the surface, and then suddenly feels heavy. You are not just trying to find a container. You...

Choosing a Cremation Urn: Size, Material, Price, and Columbarium Niche Tips

Choosing a Cremation Urn: Size, Material, Price, and Columbarium Niche Tips

Choosing an urn can feel like one more decision you did not ask to make. Families often describe the same moment: the cremation is complete, you have a temporary container...

Bereavement Gift Ideas That Actually Help: What to Send, Do, and Avoid

Bereavement Gift Ideas That Actually Help: What to Send, Do, and Avoid

In the first hours after someone dies, we reach for something—anything—that feels like it could soften the reality. A bouquet. A candle. A card you rewrite three times because the...

Ritual Space 101: How to Create a Sacred Place for Grief at Home (and What to Expect at a Graveside Service)

Ritual Space 101: How to Create a Sacred Place for Grief at Home (and What to Expect at a Graveside Service)

Grief can feel like it lives everywhere at once—on the kitchen counter beside an unopened condolence card, in the car when a certain song comes on, in the quiet moment...

30 Condolence Messages in Spanish: What to Say (and What to Avoid)

30 Condolence Messages in Spanish: What to Say (and What to Avoid)

When someone you care about is grieving, the hardest part is often the simplest: finding words that feel steady enough to carry love across a shock. If Spanish is the...

Collecting Ashes After Cremation: Who Can Pick Them Up, What to Bring, and What Happens Next

Collecting Ashes After Cremation: Who Can Pick Them Up, What to Bring, and What Happens Next

When a funeral home or crematory tells you the remains are ready, it can feel like one more errand—and also like a moment you were not emotionally prepared for. If...

Storing and Sharing Cremation Ashes: Keeping a Portion, Burial Rules, and Keepsake Urns

Storing and Sharing Cremation Ashes: Keeping a Portion, Burial Rules, and Keepsake Urns

Most families don’t start this process thinking in percentages or policies. They start with a very human question: what would feel right? Sometimes that means a single resting place. More...

How to Create an At-Home Memorial or Grief Shrine: 10 Comforting Ideas

How to Create an At-Home Memorial or Grief Shrine: 10 Comforting Ideas

When someone you love dies, the world keeps moving even though you may feel like time has stopped. An at-home memorial can be a gentle way to give grief a...