How to plan a Celebration of Life ceremony - Tears Of Joy ...

1 How to plan a Celebration of life ceremonyYou are faced with the death of a loved emotion of the loss can cloud your thoughts oroverwhelm you as to all you need to do to planthis Celebration of their life . What is the firststep?It is best to decide what type of budget youhave to work will be a determiningfactor in your decisions on what you you may want to start making achecklist of things you want to include in you know what you want to do,some find it helpful to hire aprofessional party planner to take care of some ofthe details so they can concentrate on other important matters that must bedone at this time.

2 With the date set, it is time to create your checklist. What aresome items you want to put on your checklist?LocationOnce again your budget will be a determining factor in this, but another factorwould be the amount of friends you think will have held these intheir home or the home of a friend, but if you think those attending would beover 100 or more you may want to consider renting a community center, orbanquet have held their Celebration at park, on the beach, or at afavorite spot with some significance to the loved one whose life you need to answer some important questions before you can plan the actualprogram.

3 Who will officiate?What family members and friends will want tospeak?What will be said?What will you include? Here are some key things manyof the celebrations : Apresentation with pictures, video and music that presents the importantaspects of the person and their : The person s life will be used in the ceremony , but can also beused in the program, the website, and submitted to the can also beused as an outline for the Readings: Either favorite poems of the person you are celebrating, orpoems that describe their life or the type of person they could alsobe poems written about or by the Readings.

4 Favorite scriptures, or scriptures that give or Stories: Told by friends and family to give you a clear picture of thetype of life this personledand why they were is a sample outline we found for a Celebration of life ceremony :Outline for presentation Musical Prelude A reading of Scripture Verses from the Old and New Testament Eulogy Message of Hope Choir or musical selection Reading of the Obituary Sharing Time from family and friends Video ClosingWordsSome decide to videotape or video stream the ceremony on the is agreat addition for family or friends who would like to attend, but cannot be thereon that day for one reason or another, but would still like to bea partof also helps if you have a limited capacity.

5 And cannot include all and MemoriesThere are many things you can include as decoration at your first enter the door you can have a picture memoryposterto is a poster created with key pictures from their may evenwant to include a couple of these on themes like family, friends, or maybe afavorite sport of to the posters you can have a table set up with a guest book for family andfriends to can get creative with this by making a guest book thatincludes personal items about the person, such as stories, pictures, or their adigital bookto include all this will give the family a keepsake theycan enjoy for years to their names, you may want to request emailsas well so you can send out a digital group thank you card after the to the book youmay want to put a basket or box where friends and familycan place next to this can be some index note cards and care to write a message to the family or a memory of the loved one theycan take a card.

6 Write it and then bringit back and put it in the may begood to have someone there to watch over the guest book, explain about thecards, and they can also pass out the a take home keepsake for each includes pictures, the lifestory or eulogy of the person, a list of the day s activities or ceremonypresentation, and on the back can be a favorite poem, a scripture or a in the main part of the room you can place a memory table is filled with personal items of the loved one that has could include pictures of special events, awards, items thatmeant something to them, letters, a diary, recipes, or other items written in of clothing that would distinguish them to others, items fromtheir items that tell about your loved ones personality would beideal for the memory arrangements are an important part of any celebrationof life celebrations, many people choose to have arrangements that are may have flowers that spell out the person s name.

7 Or someflorists have created arrangements with pictures as part of choosing the flowers you may consider the type of flower orcolors that were favorites of your loved one. Arrangements can be placed atentrance, on stage and as table decorations on the food receptions serve food buffet pick foods that are easy for people toeat while standing, or eating off their your loved one liked a particulartype of food , you may want that to be on the most cases its best tocaterthe event, since preparing food for a crowd can be stressful on top ofeverything else that is you have a limited budget you may want tokeep it simple and serve a cakes and cupcakes may be created in a variety of shapes to depict an itemof : say your loved one loved football; you could createcupcakes in the shape of footballs.

8 Another popular thing to do is have a sheetcake made with a picture of your loved on the top of the musiccan be done in various hire professional musiciansto play instruments like guitar, violin or harp before the ceremony , or afterwardswhile family and friends are have created a collection of songsthat had special significance to the loved one and played this during may hire a DJ and request a number of songs or artist the DJ canput together to play as background the service many wonder if they should have planned activities for theirguest.

9 Here are a few things you may want to people have found releasing a item can help in mentally andemotionally releasing the loved one from their of that the followinghave become popular additions to celebrations of Release-guest write note to the loved one directly on the helium balloonand then as a group they release them as a way of saying good-byeDove Release-another symbol of letting goButterfly release-Asymbol of releasingyourloved video-You may want to create two versions of the short video to play in the version to play afterwards revolving on a television somewhere inthe room, throughout the reception, for guest to music may be a nice way to entertain your guest throughout or family members with nice singing voices may want toperform a song that had some meaning to the loved may even set upKaraoke with all your loved ones favorite songs and encourage your guest to creating an activity at the reception for your guest to do that wasimportant to your loved one.

10 Did your loved one like board games like scrabble orchess?Why not set up some areas with these games set up for family and friendsto play during the reception?Was your loved one into golf, why not create anindoor putting green. Was your loved one a wineconnoisseur, you could arrangefor a personal wine tasting at your they love tocook? Maybe youcould have a cooking demonstration with one of their favorite ;think of ideas that could help your friends and family relive theexperience of being with your loved one idea is creating a craft table tocreate a take home gift for your Card Craft TableOne popular item for Celebration of life ceremonies is Seed cards havesome a saying, poem or memory of the loved one written on the card and insideare flower seeds friends and family can plant at their they bloom itwill help them remember their loved could create a table withconstruction paper, scissors, pens, glue.