Recently I helped two families do lovely funeral services. One family used an old established funeral home in the suburbs. The other family chose to use Memorial Events Atlanta and a funeral home in Atlanta. The quality of the services were both first class. The price was dramatically different. I want to help you see why thinking through what happens when a loved one passes away is so important.
Family #1: When Jack died, the family called the ABC Funeral Home (a fake name). Their business is very professional and sent two men out immediately to get the body. They set up an appointment for the next day to talk to the family about the funeral service. At the meeting, the family explained they wanted embalming, an open casket visitation, a service, and a police escort to the cemetery. The cost was $11,000 plus $1600 to open and close the grave.
The family held the visitation at the funeral home. The next day, I officiated the funeral, and it was beautiful. We left the funeral home with a police escort and drove to the cemetery where the burial took place. The family wanted to have a meal for their next of kin and friends who had traveled to be at the service, but there was no one to coordinate the meal, so they didn’t do it.
The cost of the service and burial were $12, 600 without a family meal.
Family #2: When Rochelle passed away her family contacted me immediately. I was in a meeting when I received the message but called them back within 30 minutes. I told her of a funeral home/mortuary in her area that we often recommend and gave her the phone number. The funeral home made arrangements to pick up the body, and the scheduled the family meeting for the next day. When the meeting was held it consisted of the funeral director, the family representatives and me.
At the meeting, the family explained they wanted embalming, an open casket visitation, a service, and burial. They also wanted a meal for 100 people served after the service. The cost was $8000, and that included all the preparations of the body, the casket, the service, a beautiful meal for all their family and friends and the burial.
Read over those two scenarios again. I did both services. They were both beautiful. But one included a family meal for 100 people and still cost almost half of what the first service with no catering cost.
Why choose to pay more for less? Call me now and let’s talk about your future needs. My name is Ray Waters, and I am the Founder of Memorial Events Atlanta, an event center that specializes in funeral/memorial services. I want to help you make the best decision possible concerning the type of funeral/memorial service with which you want to honor your loved one. My number is 404-312-0933. If I don’t answer, leave a message, and I will call you back immediately.
Be wise. A better service with a beautiful meal at half the cost just makes more sense.