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Types of Service

Standard Service – A standard service will usually follow a similar structure to what is given below:

• Arrival and taking of seats, during a chosen musical track.
• A welcome from me, thanking everyone for attending.
• Sharing of stories of your loved one by myself.
• Possibly, a contribution from one or more others – family or friends -sharing their memories/ stories of your loved one.
• Sharing a poem or two which best encapsulates who they were.
• We can also include a photo montage of favourite images of your loved one, usually alongside another piece of music.
• Ending of the ceremony with the committal, alongside words of appreciation and comfort from myself, and a final musical choice.

Everything is open, nothing fixed, and my work would be to help craft the best possible service that honours the life of the deceased and help support all those present.

Cremation or Burial Options

1. Cremation – the cremation of the body is now the most common way of committing a body after death – an offering of the body into the element of fire. The subsequent ashes can be interred in a burial site, or a private garden perhaps, or scattered where appropriate.

A crematorium is set up for such services, with an appropriate space for the service, video links, music system and a clear process of arrival and departure. The time duration of the service will depend on the particular crematorium. For example, Llanelli crematorium’s standard service is 40 minutes in duration, Swansea’s crematorium is 30 minutes. These times include the time of arrival and departure.

If cremation is the option you choose, I can tailor the service to the required length and guide the service utilising the crematorium’s resources accordingly.

It is also possible to have a direct cremation at a crematorium, ie with no service. This can apply when the celebration of life, or the funeral service, has taken place elsewhere – see the Alternatives below – or when no funeral service is required.

2. Church or Chapel Burial – this was the traditional method of committing a dead body, and still the preferred option for many today.

It is often available to parishioners of a particular church or chapel and/or arranged with an appropriate church representative.

3. Natural Burial Site – this is a steadily growing option to traditional burial. Natural burial sites are often situated in open countryside spaces, and blessed with trees, flower and the energies of nature.

They often do not permit plastics, or embalming fluids, as their rationale is one of sustainability – burying the body often in a soft wooden coffin, or shroud, which is easily biodegradable along with the body. Here the body is offered back to the earth. There may be no memorial, or a simple stone inscription of the name of the deceased, with an option to plant a tree, or flowers to honour the burial place.

4. Alternative Options – a funeral service/ celebration of life can also take place elsewhere, for example, in a community hall, a private home, or a natural setting such as a woodland.

All that is required is the gathering of family and friends, along with the body of the deceased (sometimes this is absent) and a chosen minister or celebrant, such as myself, who will hold and guide the service.

Such an alternative venue will often be free of the time constraints of a crematorium, and thereby offer more flexibility and creativity within the service.

Afterwards, the body can then be cremated, perhaps via direct cremation, or buried as is wished.