Farewell
There is no correct form. There is the form that is right for this family.
For many relatives the ceremony is the moment they will remember afterwards. It deserves a conversation, not a form to fill in.
Here are the decisions to make, in the order they actually arise.
Before the venue and the time, there is the person. What mattered to them, what faith was theirs, what music they liked, who should speak.
Almost everything else follows from that conversation. Which is why we always begin there rather than with a catalogue of services.
Church, mosque, cemetery chapel, hall, graveside or outdoors: the choice follows from the number of guests and whether the ceremony is religious.
The date depends on three availabilities: the venue, the celebrant and the cemetery or crematorium. We coordinate them for you — this is the part that costs the most phone calls.
None of it is compulsory. Many families keep three or four of these and leave the rest — that is a choice, not a shortcoming.
In Switzerland one to two weeks usually pass between the death and the ceremony. For a journey from South America or Asia that is short.
The most common solution: cremate first, hold the ceremony later with the urn. No statutory deadline runs, so you set the date.
Tell us who absolutely must be there and where they are coming from. We build the timetable around that constraint rather than discovering it too late.
Questions & answers
No. We arrange secular ceremonies just as often, led by an independent speaker after a conversation with the family. Mixed forms are possible.
It depends on the venue: a cemetery chapel holds fifty to three hundred, a church or mosque often more. Give us a rough number and we will look accordingly.
Of course, and it often helps. A text read by a grandchild, a playlist, photographs chosen as a family: tell us what you want to take on.
Almost entirely down to your choices. Room hire, fees, flowers, printing and catering are the main items. We itemise each and say frankly where something can be dropped without it showing.