The arrangement for the funeral can be done either at our premises or your home, depending on what feels more comfortable to you. Our Funeral Consultant will go through with you and your family, step by step, all aspects of the funeral.

We endeavour to tailor a service that reflects the needs of the family whilst paying respect to the deceased, within a budget suited to you. At the conclusion of the arrangement you will be given an estimate sheet with the breakdown of all costs. This estimate in fact will be very close to the final total with the difference generally being cost of newspaper notices. You will also be given confirmation of the funeral arrangements. You can contact a consultant anytime you wish to discuss, confirm or alter arrangements.

Newspaper Notices

Your Funeral Consultant can help you word these or you may want to write something by yourself, either way we can put these notices into the paper for you.
Example

This is just a small example of a death notice, sometimes people may want to add some words that reflect either their feelings or the personality of their loved one, or a photo. There is no right or wrong way to write a notice. Writing a funeral notice can sometimes be therapeutic. Most funeral notices tend to follow a pattern, advising people of the service, where it is, what time and any other details such as; what cemetery (if service is a burial) and donations to a charity. Your funeral consultant will advise you of the wording of this.

Jewellery and Personal Possessions

Occasionally when people come into our care they may have jewellery or other personal possessions on them. Your consultant will ask if you wish jewellery to remain on your loved one or to have this removed and returned to the family. Sometimes families wish for items to be left on until after the viewing.

Preparation of the Deceased

Once your loved one comes into our care we will prepare them for you to visit if you wish, by means of dressing, hair and embalming. Sometimes it’s helpful if we are provided with a photo of the deceased to enable us to ensure we have the right look. You might want to consider dressing your loved one in clothing that you are used to seeing them in, including glasses. We can organize a time for family and friends if you wish to attend a viewing in one of our chapels and spend some time saying goodbye.

Vehicles for the Funeral

If you wish we can organise for a car or limousine to pick family up and take to the service. Most people tend to drive themselves these days, but you may feel unable to do this.

Location of the Funeral

You can choose to have the funeral anywhere you wish. We have two beautiful chapels, two at Ridgehaven and the other at Queenstown. You may wish to have a more traditional funeral in a church or even a service at the graveside.

Drumminor Cemetery

Drumminor Gardens Cemetery is set amongst 100 year old gums and pioneer ruins, Drumminor Gardens is a world class cemetery purpose built to cater for the needs of families, during a time of bereavement.

Funeral Officiants

A funeral can be officiated by either, Clergy or a Civil Celebrant. On rare occasions family decide to run proceedings themselves, but at this sad time many find this hard to do without support. Our staff can assist you in this matter.

Music for the Service

Music has become an important part of a funeral service. Often family choose pieces that were enjoyed by their loved one or a reflection of their personality. Music can be in the form of a CD and at Harrison Funerals we have a large library to select from. Families can also choose to have live music played; a piper for the Scotsman or a violin or harp for the classical music lover. Your Funeral Consultant can assist you in choosing music pieces if family are finding it difficult.

Funeral Stationery

Some wish to have a keepsake from the funeral. We can help you with this in the form of memorial cards or bookmarks. These items can have your loved one’s photo on or just a picture they would have liked. Details of the deceased and their family are normally printed in these and sometimes a nice verse for reflection.

A memorial book is a keepsake for the family. On the day of the funeral, it’s not only hard to get to talk to everyone, but hard to remember who came along. So, as all family and friends who attend, print their name in this, it’s often quite nice for the family to look back on to recall who was there.

Floral Tributes

Floral tributes are a way of the family paying respect to their loved one, these flowers are traditionally placed on top of the coffin. Your funeral consultant will have pictures for you to select from, or you may wish to choose your own.

After a burial service the flowers would normally go to the cemetery with the coffin and are placed on the grave. After a cremation the flowers can either go with the coffin to the crematorium or we can deliver them to a Nursing Home.

Charitable Donations

These days families quite often don’t want to receive flowers after a loved one has passed and opt to invite people to make a donation in their loved one’s memory to a foundation. These choices are quite often related to what was near and dear to their loved one, an illness the deceased or a family member may have suffered or be suffering or something they think may be a worthy cause.

Other Memorabilia

There are many items that can be displayed around a lounge area or the front of a chapel that relates to the deceased. A hobby such as painting, writing, fishing or anything that the person may have liked doing. The possibilities are endless.

On The Day

On the day your Funeral Consultant will ensure that all the details you discussed in the arrangement will come about. Your Consultant will support you and your family and advise you again of the proceedings and guide you through this.

DVD Presentation

At Harrison Funerals we have the facility to have what we call a ‘Life Celebration’. The family supply photos and a piece of music and this is put together in the form of a DVD then shown on a screen at the front of the chapel. This gives us time to reflect on our loved one and for others to enjoy the photos of a lifetime. Sometimes they make us laugh and sometimes cry, nevertheless, it’s a time to reflect on a unique individual.

Video

‘A Video’ you ask. Why would someone want to have a video of a funeral? Well there are many reasons for this; one for those who can’t make the service either through distance, timing or illness; young children who may have no recollection of a funeral and may wish to view this as they grow older; some may wish to view it because the day was a blur and they can’t remember, others may just wish to see it and have a cry and some may have a video and never watch it. For whatever reason this is another option that may or not be required. As with everything it is a personal choice.

• All services can be live streamed
• Recording of the service can be recovered for up to 12 months and can be downloaded

This is a free service at our Harrison Chapels. Please contact us for more information.