Memorial service
Ceremony, viewing and farewell — religious or freely composed, in your family's language.
What to expect
For many relatives the memorial service is the moment they will remember afterwards. It can take place in a church or a mosque, in the cemetery chapel, at the graveside, in a hall or outdoors. It can follow a religious order or be composed entirely freely.
Over more than ten years we have accompanied very different ceremonies: quiet farewells among five people as well as ceremonies with several hundred guests, with clergy of various denominations or with a speaker the family chose themselves.
What we have learned is that there is no correct form. There is only the form that is right for this particular family. Our task is to find it and then to make sure that on the day itself everything works without your having to attend to anything.
Process
Before we talk about sequence and logistics, we talk about the person who has died. What mattered to them, what faith they held, what music they liked, who should speak. Almost everything else follows from that.
We check the availability of the church, mosque, chapel or hall and settle the date with the cemetery, the crematorium and the clergy.
Before the ceremony we arrange a viewing — at home, on our premises or in the cemetery's farewell room. You decide who attends and for how long.
Speaker or clergy, music, flowers, photographs, candles, texts and songs. We coordinate everyone involved and draw up the order of service.
Announcement cards, a death notice in the newspaper and online, informing friends and colleagues. We design, print and send.
We are on site, receive the guests, keep to the order of service and handle all the organisation — so that you can concentrate solely on the farewell.
In detail
When part of the family lives abroad, the question of timing cuts across everything: in Switzerland one to two weeks usually pass between the death and the ceremony, which is tight for travel from a distance. One solution is to cremate first and hold the ceremony later with the urn. Then you set the date rather than the calendar. Tell us in the first conversation who has to travel and we will plan around it.
Questions & answers
No. We arrange secular farewell ceremonies just as often. Instead of clergy, an independent speaker leads the ceremony after a detailed conversation with the family beforehand. Mixed forms are also possible — a prayer within an otherwise secular ceremony, for instance.
Either is possible. With a cremation, the ceremony can be held with the coffin before the cremation or later with the urn. The second option gives you more time to plan and allows relatives from abroad to travel.
In many cantons yes, at least the viewing and the farewell in the closest circle. For the ceremony itself a larger space is usually more suitable. We clarify what is permitted in your municipality.
That depends on the venue. Cemetery chapels hold between fifty and three hundred people depending on the municipality; churches and mosques often more. Tell us the approximate number of guests and we will find a suitable venue and plan the seating.
That depends almost entirely on your wishes: room hire, fees for speakers and musicians, flowers, printing and catering are the largest items. We prepare a quote with every item listed separately and tell you frankly where it makes sense to save.
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