Funeral Planning

Poems of Mourning and Comfort

Poetry read at a funeral is an eloquent way to pay tribute to the life and legacy of someone you love. For the bereaved, poems about dying, the pain of loss, grief, mourning, the afterlife, or rebirth can bring comfort and be a source of inspiration and hope.

Attending a Funeral: What to Know

Legacy offers advice from experts to help answer all of your funeral etiquette questions: What is the difference between a memorial service and a funeral? What should I say to the deceased's family at the visitation? Does it matter what I wear?

How Much Does Cremation Cost?

has become very popular in recent years. In a 2024 report from the National Funeral Directors Association, 61.9% of Americans were projected to choose cremation versus 33.2% who were expected to opt for a traditional burial. One reason for this is that cremation is usually less expensive than burial.

How to Find a Crematory

If you’re making final plans for yourself or a loved one, and cremation is part of the plan, you’ll need to find a crematory. This is the location where the cremation takes place.

Arranging the Interment of Ashes

Interment of ashes is when cremated remains are buried in the ground or placed in a building designed to hold ashes, known as a columbarium. This is an option if you prefer not to scatter them or display them in your home.

What to Do When Someone Dies

After the death of a loved one, the volume of decisions and responsibilities can feel overwhelming. This article provides a comprehensive, step-by-step checklist to help surviving family members navigate what needs to be done from the moment of death through the weeks and months that follow the funeral. Organized by urgency rather than strict chronology, it covers immediate actions, funeral planning, legal and financial responsibilities, and practical tasks related to the deceased’s home, accounts, and personal affairs. Designed primarily for close survivors but useful for anyone offering support, the guide brings clarity and structure to a difficult time, helping families focus on what matters most while ensuring essential details are not overlooked.

How to Personalize a Themed Funeral

Whether you’re planning a or an unconventional one, you can make it by adding a theme. Clothing, floral tributes, décor, music, and food can all come together in a theme that reflects the life you’re honoring.

How to Plan an Eco-Friendly Funeral

Many of the elements of a traditional funeral come with an environmental impact—from to , and from cut flowers to huge limousines. Fortunately, there are many steps you can consider to help make a funeral and burial more environmentally friendly. 

How to Plan a Party-Style Funeral

“When I die, I don’t want my friends to have a funeral and be sad. I want them to throw a great party and play all my favorite songs and talk about all the fun we had.”  

It's Never Too Late for a Memorial Service

For an entire year from 2020 to 2021, pandemic restrictions meant we couldn’t say goodbye to our loved ones the way we wanted. Often, we were unable to be with them when they died—and to make matters worse, we weren’t able to gather to hold the funerals that would help us mourn properly. Whether we could only gather with a few close family members, or we watched a small service online, or we skipped the funeral altogether, pandemic funerals have often been unsatisfying and left us feeling unresolved grief. 

Video Funerals Help Families Mourn During COVID-19

At a time when precautions against COVID-19 mean that large public gatherings are banned in some places and discouraged most everywhere else, how can we continue having funerals? It’s important to honor and remember the lives of our loved ones who have died, and mourning together with others who loved them is a crucial part of the grief process. We can still do this, even if we can’t get together in one place for a funeral. 

How to Pre-Plan a Funeral

Planning your own funeral may not be easy, but deciding your funeral arrangements in advance can give peace of mind to your family when the time comes. Learn why funeral pre-planning is helpful, then use our detailed checklist to guide you through the steps of pre-planning a funeral. 

Funerals During the COVID-19 Coronavirus Epidemic: How to Plan

As the new coronavirus strain COVID-19 travels around the globe, it’s not always easy to know what to do to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. In many areas of the U.S., public gatherings have been banned or discouraged. We're practicing social distancing, staying home as much as possible. 

The Surprising Ways a Funeral Director Can Help You

If you've never had to help plan a funeral, your idea of a funeral director's job is probably a little vague. They arrange the funeral, right? They handle the burial or cremation, and are at the visitation and the funeral service to make sure everyone's in the right place at the right time. Is that it?

How to Choose a Cemetery

If you're planning a funeral and burial, you're faced with deciding which cemetery is the right choice. Whether you're pre-planning for yourself long before you'll need it, or you're quickly organizing a loved one's funeral after their death, you'll need to take a number of factors into account as you choose a cemetery.

What Is a Traditional 20th-Century U.S. Burial?

Almost half of Americans bury their dead. At its heart, burial is a very simple concept: A hole is dug; a body is placed in it and covered with earth. When we refer to a "traditional 20th-century American-style burial," we're being a little more specific: We mean a burial that includes embalming, a coffin or casket, and a burial vault – three elements that have become somewhat standardized over the past 150 years.

What It's Like When Your Parents Pre-Plan Their Funerals

Mom and Dad wanted to have the talk. Here's what happened when we sat down.

What Is a Wake?

A wake is one of the ceremonies some people perform after a death. It’s often used interchangeably with visitation or viewing, though historically it was a different kind of ceremony from our modern-day visitation.

How to Find the Best Burial Insurance Policy

What final expenses does burial insurance cover? And is funeral insurance right for you?

What Is the Difference Between a Coffin and a Casket?

Selecting a coffin or casket is an important choice to make in regard to funeral planning. The difference between a coffin and casket is in the design.

How to Choose a Pallbearer

Serving as pallbearer is a position of honor. Here are tips on who to ask.

How Much Does the Average Funeral Cost?

The average funeral with burial costs $8,755, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. But what does that include, what does it not include, and how much can it vary?  

How (and Why) to Make a Charitable Bequest

Here's how you can leave a philanthropic legacy to benefit an organization you care about.

Luke Perry's daughter reveals he was buried in a mushroom suit

Luke Perry planned before his death to return his body to the earth via an eco-friendly technology that's just recently become available: the mushroom suit.

Top Religious Funeral Songs

The relationship between funerals and music is incredibly powerful. Funeral songs can provide family and friends a sense of peace and comfort at a difficult time. Often the songs selected for a funeral or memorial service are spiritual and speak to the deceased's faith in God. Here are 10 of the most beloved religious songs played or performed at funerals, memorial services, and celebrations of life.

Top Funeral Songs 🎵

This article examines the deep emotional connection between music and funerals, explaining how songs and hymns help families honor loved ones, process grief, and find comfort during memorial services. It presents a curated list of 76 popular funeral and celebration-of-life songs, organized by themes such as remembering parents, partners, or children, as well as religious, uplifting, humorous, love, and alternative music choices. The article serves as a practical guide for selecting meaningful music that reflects personal memories and supports emotional healing.

Luke Perry Planned Ahead Smartly — Just In Case

We don't have to be rich to protect our families with advance preparation.

This Therapy Dog Works in a Funeral Home

"Ally" the goldendoodle is trained to comfort people as they grieve.

How to Plan a Funeral After a Death

A loved one has died, and now it’s up to you to plan the funeral. It is challenging to plan a service and grieve at the same time, You don’t have to do it alone — expert funeral directors are available to help. Use Legacy’s checklist to guide you as you find a funeral home and   that is meaningful and comforting.