There are many benefits to planning ahead for our major life milestones. We plan weddings to celebrate love, baby showers to celebrate new life, birthday parties to acknowledge how we’ve grown, and even anniversaries to recognize continued achievements. However, there’s one life event that many people don’t even like to discuss, let alone pre-plan. Funerals. Just the word can be intimidating and daunting. Reading it or speaking it aloud may make many of us run and hide.
If you’ve ever experienced the loss of a loved one or had to plan a memorial or funeral service, you’re well aware of all the elements involved in the planning. Location, floral, music, food, etc. Similar to planning a wedding or celebration of life, the acknowledgement and recognition of one’s passing can be stressful and overwhelming. Having to make financial decisions during a time where emotions are running high can be almost impossible for the family and loved ones left to navigate through a person’s passing. It’s for this reason that pre-planning your funeral is gaining in popularity.
By preplanning a funeral or memorial, the family can simply execute the wishes left behind by the deceased and often times are not required to contribute financially. Eliminating these major stress factors from the equation is becoming more and more ideal to many individuals.
There are millions of people in the U.S. alone that have conferred with a funeral director or cremation service to pay for and plan their funerals in advance. The 2017 National Funeral Directors Association survey on Consumer Awareness Preferences revealed that showed 62.5% of consumers surveyed "felt it was very important to communicate their funeral plans and wishes to family members prior to their own death," yet only 21.4 percent had done so.
According to U.S. News & World Reports, 20 million people have prepaid for their funerals either with a lump sum payment or via installments. Others have set aside funds in a trust or payable on death (POD) savings account so their family can easily access funds set aside for a funeral or memorial.
In doing so, the burden is taken from your family and you get a sense of security in knowing that you will be given the services that you want. With the average full service burial varying in cost from $6,500 to $10,000; giving your family the gift of pre-planning is a decision more and more people are beginning to make.
Pre-planning: Where to start?
There are many aspects to making your own arrangements, and it can be tough to find a place to start. Why not start in a place as familiar as floral? Flowers are often a staple at funerals and for a family of the deceased it can be a more difficult decision to make. Beginning with choosing your floral arrangements can be a way to ‘ease into’ the funeral pre-planning process.
Start by visiting your local floral shop or search Funerals360 to find a local florist in your area that specializes in sympathy related arrangements. Your local florist can help you choose the type of arrangement (casket spray, standing spray, plant, etc.) and even colors and flower types. Pick arrangements that you love and make arrangements with your florist so that your family needn’t worry when it comes time to celebrate the life of their loved one.
You can put your preferences in My Funeral Wishes, outlining the types of flowers and arrangements as well as the name of your preferred flower shop.
Don’t wait until it’s too late - start thinking about and planning your funeral or memorial now to save your family from having to make tough decisions during a stressful time and give them the gift of peace.
About the Author
This guest article and the photographs seen above were contributed by FTD, the floral specialists. Your local FTD florist is a great resource to help you select the perfect tribute to honor a loved one. To find your local florist, visit our website to search and compare local florist that can help you find the perfect flowers to honor your loved one and offer condolences to friends and family.
