Pre-planning your funeral does a lot for your family. It lets them know your wishes, saves them the grief of planning a funeral while dealing with a death, and it may even allow you to pay ahead of time for your burial services and related expenses. When you are planning your own funeral, though, the burden of making all of the decisions fall on you. There are a few key decisions that make sense for pre-planned funerals; here's an argument on why to choose cremation, plus a few other suggestions:

Choosing Cremation

The biggest thing you will have to decide for most funerals is whether you want to be buried or if you want to be cremated. If your goal is to save your family pain, effort, or time, cremation is a good choice. It is the most streamlined option; the cremated ashes can be returned within a day or a few days.

If you choose cremation, be sure to choose the facility and the method of cremation. Flame cremations are more common and less expensive, but natural chemical cremations are easier on the Earth; this could be the last statement on your stance against a large carbon footprint.

Another choice you will have to make with cremation is how to store the ashes. Urns can come plain or with intricate decorations. They can have specific purposes, such as nurturing a seedling. Or, you might put your ashes into a painting, a building block, or some other creative alternative.

Choosing Your Ceremony

If you are planning ahead of time and want to have a burial ceremony, you can choose your funeral director and create plans with them for the memorial service. You can choose your own flowers, suggest the music you want to be played, create programs with an itinerary, and even suggest what kind of personal decorations should go in the funeral home. The funeral director acts as the guardian to these plans, helping your family carry them out at the right time.

Choosing Where to Be Kept

You might also want to dictate where you will be kept. If you are cremated, you have the option of simply allowing your family to keep the ashes within their own home or backyard burial area. If you want to still be buried in a cemetery plot, you can! You can pick it out now, along with a beautiful, custom headstone that represents your personality and your legacy.

Contact a company like Michels & Lundquist Funeral Home for more information and assistance.