Can you customise your funeral plan?
Planning and paying for your own funeral could help save your family from unplanned expenses. It’s also a good opportunity to arrange the funeral that you want. Whether you would like a traditional religious service or a celebration of life, the choice is personal. But how much can you customise your funeral plan?
Personalised plans
Golden Charter offers the flexibility of five different funeral plans, offering a range of options to cater to personal preferences and suit different budgets. Every plan includes the professional services of a funeral director to care for the deceased. At Golden Charter, we work with over 2,900 funeral directors across the UK.
A range of coffins is also included. By choosing our Basic plan - which includes an unattended cremation without a service - a simple coffin suitable for cremation will be selected. With more comprehensive plans, higher quality coffins are available.
If you would like to upgrade an existing item in your chosen plan – for example, upgrading the coffin- or adding something such as an additional limousine - this can be arranged when you set up the plan or at a later date for an additional cost.
For a complete rundown of the options included in each of our plans - and what’s not included - head to our ‘Compare our funeral plans’ page.
Alternatively, if you would like to choose aspects from various plans, we can create a bespoke plan for you designed with our Independent Way plan. For more information on creating a bespoke plan, contact your local funeral director. Search for a local independent funeral director from the Golden Charter network here.
Your funeral wishes
Funeral wishes are recorded with every Golden Charter funeral plan. Besides choosing from the range of elements included in each of our plans, you can also state your personal preferences. Following are some of the ways people choose to customise their own final send-off.
Custom coffins
You may think that, with a coffin only visible for a short time, it is reasonable to keep costs to a minimum. However, seeing it as the focal point of their funeral, some people opt for personalised coffins. From environmentally friendly wicker coffins to coffins carrying designs or photographs to represent your passions, there are a wide range of coffins available.
A funeral arranged by Devall & Son Family Funeral Directors in Nuneaton featured a unique Land Rover coffin carried by a Land Rover hearse.
Unique funeral vehicles
Devall & Son has also arranged a funeral where the deceased, once a cab driver, was carried to his funeral in a modified black-cab hearse. Whether it’s a Land Rover or a black cab, the choice of a unique vehicle for your final send-off is a very public way to stamp your personality on your funeral. Other unusual funeral vehicles we’ve heard of are milk floats, tanks and tandem bicycles.
Favourite flowers
Throughout human history, flowers have played an important part in funeral rites. Prehistoric graves have been found with floral grave linings. Many modern funeral services feature flowers, where they bring a natural beauty to sometimes sombre surroundings. There are no real dos-and-don'ts when it comes to funeral flowers. Popular choices include lilies, roses and carnations, but it is common for people to choose their own favourites.
Perfect poems and readings
The right words can help to bring comfort at a funeral and make the service more personal to you and your family. There are some poems that are very familiar at funerals - ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ by Dylan Thomas or Mary Frye’s ‘Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep’ - but there are also many lesser known poems that are equally appropriate.
Similarly, the right reading is a chance to leave lasting memories with your loved ones. As with so much in modern funerals, there is no right or wrong way to choose a reading. Passages that speak to you can come from almost anywhere, from literature to song lyrics and even films. The only thing that matters is that you choose something that your loved ones will recognise as your choice.
Meaningful music
Music taste is probably one of the most personal aspects of our character. With so many artists and genres to choose from, being very clear about the music you would like to be played at your funeral can remove a great deal of stress from your loved ones.
Music is such an important part of the funeral service, there is an annual chart compiled of the most popular funeral songs. Based on research from more than 90,000 funerals, last year’s top three were ‘Supermarket Flowers’ from Ed Sheeran, Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ at number two and ‘Time to Say Goodbye’, sung by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, at number one.
There are many ways to customise your own funeral. The key, however, is to plan your funeral in advance. Without a funeral plan, you are leaving all the choices involved in arranging your final sendoff to someone else. Setting out your wishes removes that burden from your loved ones and lets you arrange the funeral you want.
