When doing the planning for your eventual funeral, if you prefer to be cremated instead of having a traditional burial, you can still include all of the other features of a burial. Your family need not miss out on these opportunities to have closure just because of the cremation. Here is how you would work with the funeral home to combine both burial and cremation services in your planning.

Viewing and Visitation

You can still have a traditional viewing of your body by postponing the cremation. For a viewing, you'll need to include embalming in your plan. State laws and funeral home regulations require a body to be embalmed a certain number of hours after death. The viewing would happen shortly after that.

The container you choose for the viewing depends on how you wish to finally be placed to rest. You can request that your cremains be buried in a casket in a traditional cemetery plot. If that's the case, you'll include the purchase of a casket in your plan. If you don't want a casket burial, most funeral homes have caskets to rent for the viewing.

Another option is a cloth-covered casket. This is a lightweight casket made of fiberboard or pressed wood covered with a layer of cloth. This inexpensive casket can be used for the viewing. Later, you can be cremated in this container. Crematoriums require the body to be in a container for the cremation.

If you don't want a viewing, you can still have a visitation. A visitation is simply a viewing where there is no body to see. If you prefer to have a visitation, you can be cremated earlier and have your cremains present at this service, either in the urn or a casket of your choice.

The Funeral Service

Your choice of cremation doesn't impact the funeral service. Your cremains can be present in a casket or urn during the service. A graveside, or burial, service is often held after the funeral service. This can be handled various ways, depending on when the cremation occurs.

After the Funeral Service

If you chose to be embalmed for a viewing, you could be cremated before the actual funeral service. Or you can wait and be embalmed after. If cremated before the service, then following the funeral, you can have a graveside service with either the traditional casket burial or an interment in a columbarium vault.

If you deferred your cremation until after the funeral, then following the service, you'll be taken to the crematorium. You could then plan for a graveside service when your cremains are placed in the ground or columbarium vault.

Talk with a funeral home like Final Care Cremation Services to determine the right timing for the cremation.