Planning a Celebration of Life Ceremony in the UK
Tasked with planning a celebration of life ceremony? This can be an incredibly moving task, filled with positive emotions, or it can be incredibly stressful. It’s very easy to lose sight of what you are trying to achieve – particularly if you often strive for perfection.
With this in mind, we’ve created a foolproof guide to help take the stress out of planning a celebration of life ceremony. By following these steps, you’ll ensure you’ve covered all of the important factors, ensuring that nothing can surprise you on the day.
Alongside careful planning, it helps to take a flexible approach to the day. While small things might fall out of place and you’ll have to adapt, don’t let these minor details distract from the bigger picture.
It’s also important to take the time to actually be present on the day. Far too many event organisers will be so wrapped up in the admin that they fail to see the bigger picture. Try the following steps to plan a foolproof celebration of life ceremony…
1. Decide who will organise it
From the very start, you need to get clear on the tasks. Who will be involved in organising the event and what tasks will they take care of. Being clear on this from the start will avoid the stress that can occur when tasks fall between the cracks. Put it down in writing and make sure everyone knows what is expected of them. Also make it clear that it’s better to pass on tasks to someone else if a person is struggling to get it done.
2. Choose a date and time
There might be a significant date you want to observe, or you might simply want to choose a weekend date when you know most people will be available.
Hosting your celebration of life ceremony in the middle of the week could be cheaper, particularly if you need to hire a venue, catering and a celebrant. But weekday events may limit who can attend.
A weekend will maximise the likelihood that everyone can attend, but could limit when you host it as places might get booked up.
3. Pick the location
Once you have set the date, you can also start to think about the location. If you have to hire a venue, the location might be influenced by the date you choose, and vice versa. If you’re hosting the celebration of life outdoors, then you are likely to have more flexibility. If you do choose an outdoor location, think about what you will do in the event of bad weather, and also think about toilet facilities.
4. Create the guest list
Now you have the date and the location, you can think about how many people the event can comfortably accommodate. You might limit the celebration of life event to a select number of people, such as close friends and family. This will be easier to plan, but could risk offending those who aren’t invited.
A larger event will require a larger budget and more planning, but if you want to truly honour a person’s life, it’s nice to be able to invite everyone who was touched by their presence in some way – even if they weren’t that close.
5. Plan the ceremony
You might choose to host something very traditional, with readings and poetry from friends and family members. Or you might want to host a slightly less traditional event, such as a mini music festival.
This is really about honouring the person who has passed away and allowing their friends, family and loved ones to come together in their memory.
It could be a chance to try something that your family member loved, such as wild swimming. Or it could be a charity event to raise money for a cause that was important to them.
There are no rules when it comes to planning a celebration of life ceremony, and it’s all about what feels right for you and your family. You can be as traditional or as creative as you like, as there are so strict rules you need to follow.
6. Choose a host or celebrant
Once you have the format for the event, you can decide who will host it. Unless you have a confident public speaker in the family, it’s a nice idea to hire a celebrant to lead the ceremony. They will help you to design a ceremony with speeches and readings from key members of the family.
By asking someone else to host, it allows all of the grieving guests to be present and not have to worry about leading the event.
7. Personalise the event
Decorations can help to bring a sense of occasion and celebration, rather than allowing the event to feel like a sad occasion. It’s supposed to be a celebration of life, so it’s important to make their life the centre of everything.
A central display with photographs and hand-written stories can help to bring everyone together. You could also ask everyone to contribute items on the day. If they don’t want to leave originals behind, you could ask them to scan and print the photos on the day. This will also allow you to keep a record of the photographs.
8. Arrange practicalities
You might want to serve food and drinks at the event, or just offer light refreshments. You can also ask guests to bring items with them, which will allow you to put together a collaborative picnic for everyone to enjoy. All you need to arrange is plates, cutlery, napkins and drinks.
If you are offering refreshments, think about toilet facilities. Events held outdoors should be hosted near bathroom facilities and should also be accessible to as many people as possible.
9. Send the invitations
The details are now ironed out and you’re ready to invite the guests. You don’t have to spend a lot on invitations, you can simply invite guests via email or with a WhatsApp message. You could also set up a celebration of life ceremony website to host details of the event and update attendees closer to the date.