When you finally give up the physical body and leave this existence, your family will experience a number of intense feelings. It's a poor time to ask them to make important decisions, such as what kind of funeral you'd like to have. Your effort in pre-planning your funeral is the final loving act you can do for your family. It takes the burden of making difficult choices from your family. Here are the majors areas of your plan that will be most important to your family.

Cremation or Full-Body Burial

This is a personal choice that you need to make and note in your pre-planning documents. This is also a decision that affects other choices you make in your funeral planning. This may also be the most important decision to discuss with your family. Their own beliefs could make it hard to accept your choice, so you'll need to make it clear what your final choice is.

Container for Your Remains

If you choose a full-body burial, you'll have to have a casket. Styles range from expensive ornately carved solid wood models to environmentally friendly seagrass. If you choose cremation, you can also be buried in a casket, but you can choose from a variety of containers for your cremains. You can find carved stone cremation vases or go the economy route with a fiberboard box.

If you wish to have your body on display during a viewing service, you can be embalmed and rent a casket for the viewing. After the funeral service, you'll be sent to the cremation facility and your cremains will be placed in a box or urn for final burial.

Your Burial Preferences

With a full-body burial, you must be buried in a standard cemetery plot. Some states and cemeteries require you to purchase a concrete vault that is placed in the ground first. The casket is then lowered into the vault. With cremation, you can still be buried in a casket, but you can also choose to be placed in a smaller plot in the ground set aside by the cemetery. Or your urn can be stored in a locked niche maintained by a crematorium.

Funeral Services

Funerals accommodate either cremation or full-body burial the same way. You can design a funeral, specifying the theme, music, flowers, speakers and readings the same way for either choice. The only difference may be in the timing of events.

If you choose cremation and wish to have a viewing, you'll need to be embalmed within a few days after your death. You can then be cremated after the viewing or following the memorial service. If you don't care about a viewing, you can be cremated right away.

You can also request a grave side service in either case. The facilities in a crematorium tend to be small and for more intimate groups, such as immediate family and close friends. Burial in a standard cemetery plot gives you more space to have a large number of people attend the grave side service.

To learn more, contact a company like Parsippany Funeral Home Inc.