What funeral booklets or cards do you need for a funeral?
There are several written or printed items like funeral cards or brochures you may want at the funeral or memorial service you are planning. Which funeral cards do you need and when?
Obituary and death notice
Both an obituary and a death notice serve to inform the public of a death and the date and time of the funeral or memorial service. Both are paid notices in local newspapers for public reading. A death notice provides the name of the deceased and the dates of life and death. An obituary also includes the name and dates, but also provides a short biography of the deceased.
An obituary can be a nice way to memorialize your loved one by sharing their lives with the public. The obituary can be printed in a local paper, posted on the funeral home’s website, and posted on any of several online memorial services.
While an obituary can serve to inform friends and family of the funeral dates and times, it is probably better if you reach out to people who you really want to attend the funeral in more personal ways.
Funeral announcements
For any friends or relatives that you have not contacted personally by telephone, you may want to send out funeral notices. These can be in the form of a death announcement, funeral announcement, funeral notice, or invitation.
Funeral program
A funeral program is a pamphlet that is given out at the funeral or memorial service. Not only a remembrance, it provides a guide through the service. The program often has date and time, a photo of the deceased, the funeral order of service, an obituary, funeral and memorial poems, prayers, bible scriptures, titles and/or lyrics of the funeral hymns and memorial songs played at the funeral, names of pall bearers and flower bearers. The funeral program may also include personal notes to the deceased, photos collages and artwork.
Funeral card
A funeral card is a small card given as a token of remembrance of the passing of the deceased. It usually is a fairly small, about 2 1/2 inches by 4 ¼ inches laminated card. The card usually has an inspirational photo and a prayer on it. You may also choose to include a photo of the deceased and dates of their birth and death.
Gift or memorial
Sometimes, the funeral card is seen as a gift of remembrance of your loved one. At some funeral receptions and memorial services, however, additional small tokens are given to friends and family to remember your loved one as they might want to be remembered. These can include things like birdseed with a printed note, plantable flower seed paper with a note, or other small mementos.
Thank you note
Finally, you may want to send thank you notes. Thank you notes can be sent to all attendees but are really not necessary. It is nice, though, to send quick thank you notes to those who sent flowers, made a donation or did something special in your time of need. For instance, at many modern funerals, family often asks for a donation to a charitable cause supported by the deceased. Sending a thank you note to those who donate to the charity is a nice gesture.
You may choose all of these options, or none. The funeral cards and programs you choose is up to you based on how you think the deceased would want to be remembered.
Creating any of these options is fairly easy with all of the online printing options now. You can purchase cards from a funeral card printer, a customized version from and artist on websites like etsy, of from photo printing services like Shutterfly. With a little computer savvy, you can create and print these at home with software such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word.
