Memorial Services in Brooklyn, NY

Our staff has years of experience providing quality memorial services to families in Brooklyn, NY. Below, we have provided you with a breakdown explaining what a memorial service is as well as some tips to help you come up with great memorial service ideas for your loved one. If you have any questions about what you read here, please do not hesitate to contact us at your earliest convenience.

What is a Memorial Service?

Unlike a traditional funeral, a memorial service is a gathering where a casket is not present (although the urn with the cremated remains may be on display). A memorial service can be held weeks or even months after the death.

A memorial service can be held in a church, the funeral home or a community hall, or somewhere of importance to the deceased and family. There is usually music, selected readings, and a eulogy. Memorial services can be further personalized as a celebration-of-life.

Difference Between a Funeral & Celebration of Life

Benefits of Memorial Services

We find the most common reason people choose a memorial service is that they want the extra time to plan a ceremony. Since a memorial service can take place after the body has been buried or cremation, there is no rush to organize a ceremony. Immediately following a death, families are not emotionally ready to have a ceremony – They need time to grieve. Relatives and friends that live far away can organize their schedule to travel for the memorial service.

Often those not religious choose to have a memorial service as opposed to a traditional funeral because traditional funerals are more often associated with religion.
Memorial service tend to be cheaper than holding a traditional funeral
As mentioned above, for some people memorial services serve as the perfect compromise between a celebration of life and traditional funeral service.
Some people find celebrations of life do not pay enough attention to the deceased and turn into solely a party

Why Choose a Memorial Service?

Often those not religious choose to have a memorial service as opposed to a traditional funeral because traditional funerals are more often associated with religion
Memorial services tend to be cheaper than holding a traditional funeral
As mentioned above, for some people memorial services serve as the perfect compromise between a celebration of life and traditional funeral service.
Some people find celebrations of life do not pay enough attention to the deceased and turn into solely a party

Memorial Service Ideas

Our experience has shown us that many of today's families want more than a traditional funeral. This can be done by bringing more of the personality and lifestyle of the deceased into the arrangements. By displaying photographs or staging the event around a favorite pastime, a memorial service can become more personal and meaningful.

Planning a memorial service can be challenging, we have provided some prompting questions to help you better personalize your loved one's memorial service:

What did your loved one like to do?
What was he or she like as an individual?
What was their profession and how did that shape their life?
Was your loved one spiritual?
Was he or she proud of their cultural or ethnic heritage?

For the Sailing Lover

If your loved one enjoyed spending their free time on the water, pay tribute to that with this sailing-themed celebration of life. If you are planning to hold the service at a funeral home or another venue, decorate the space with a nautical theme. This could include sailing hats for guests to wear, a large ship steering wheel or miniature tall ships set out as the centerpiece for tables around the room.

If you really want to think outside the box, hold the event on a yacht or large ship. If you can find a vessel to accommodate the guests, use it as the venue and celebrate your loved one’s life on the water. You could even use this as an opportunity to spread their ashes during the service.

For the Sports Fan

For some people, sports are a major part of their life. Whether it's watching every game or participating in rec leagues every week, it can be something you invest a lot of time into. If this was the case for your loved one, honor them with a sports-themed celebration of life. For this theme, consider decorating the venue with memorabilia and decorations of their favorite team.

If you want to take this theme even further, organize a tournament in memory of them. Whether it’s a softball tournament or golf tournament, you can have guests gather to spend time playing the sport that the deceased loved. You could even collect donations at the event and make a charitable donation in memory of the deceased.

For the Charitable Person

Was your loved one a caring and charitable person? If so, you could organize an event around celebrating the life of the deceased while raising money for a charity they loved. The charity event could be an elaborate event or a casual party where people can leave a donation to be pooled together and donated in the deceased’s name.

For the Chef

Did your loved one love food? If they were the type of person who loved to make or eat delicious food and appreciated trying new things, organize a dinner party that serves their favorite foods. This will allow guests to eat the foods your loved one loved, and feel a connection to them. You could even turn the service into a potluck and ask guests to try and recreate your loved one’s signature dishes.

For the Gamesman

Board games are something that can bring people together for hours of laughter and entertainment. If your loved one was someone who enjoyed playing games, including that in their celebration of life. Not only will it provide guests a different atmosphere than they may be accustomed to at funeral services, it allows them time to share stories with one another.

For this theme, set up board games, cards or other table games around the venue. Ask them to share memories of the deceased as they play games together. If you want to get really creative, set up Jenga blocks. Ask the guests to each write a memory on a block when they remove it from the tower. After the service, your family will have a game full of memories to take home and remember your loved one next time you play.

How Does a Celebration of Life Differ from a Traditional Funeral?

As mentioned in the page Traditional Funeral Services, there are four basic components which make up the conventional approach to funerals:

A Visitation
The Funeral Service
A Committal Service
The Funeral Reception

A traditional funeral then is a series of events; it's a ritualized process where the deceased, and the attendees, pass from one social status to another; a process where the torn fabric of a family and community is repaired. According to the online article "Six Characteristics of Helpful Ceremonies", by William Hoy, Director of Grief Connect, this is done by including:

Symbols of shared significance intended to communicate beyond words
Ritual actions shared by a group of individuals
Gathered people providing comfort to one another
Connection to heritage through recognized readings
Increased physical contact between attendees provide comfort
Witnessing the transition of the body through burial or cremation

In knowing these characteristics, you can design a Celebration of Life as unique as the life of your loved. Learn how to create a Celebration of Life .

Contact Us for More Memorial Ideas & Information

Using the above five questions as our guide, we will spend the time to help create a fitting memorial service for your loved one. Please call us to learn the details of our memorial service planning process. We also urge you to visit the how to plan celebration of life section of our website to make your planning process easier.