Cremation ceremony

At a cremation with mourners present, the coffin is brought into the crematorium chapel for a service, and the committal follows at the end. The cremation itself takes place afterwards, out of sight, and the ashes are usually ready within a few days. A direct cremation has no ceremony at all: there is no service and no mourners, and the cremation happens on a date set by the crematorium.

Funero arranges direct cremation, at a fixed £1,295. We do not arrange services at the crematorium, and a direct cremation cannot be attended. If your family would like time with your loved one first, we can arrange a private viewing at our chapel of rest in London or Nottinghamshire, which costs £150.

The shape of the service

Crematoria book services into slots, often thirty or forty-five minutes long, and the times are kept. A minister leads a religious service, and a civil or humanist celebrant leads a non-religious one. Most follow the same order: a welcome, a tribute or eulogy, two or three readings or pieces of music, prayers if the service is religious, and then the committal. If you want many speakers or a lot of music, say so early, as a longer service needs a double slot.

The committal

At the committal the coffin is formally given up. Depending on the crematorium, curtains close around it, it is lowered out of sight, or it stays where it is while the family leaves. That last choice exists at many crematoria, and it is worth asking for if the closing curtain is the moment you dread.

After the family has left

The crematorium's staff check the coffin against its name card, and the cremation usually happens that same day. Under the code of practice crematoria follow, a coffin can be held over to the next day only with the applicant's written consent.

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The service, minute by minute, is in what happens at a cremation service, and the cremation itself in how long a cremation takes. A cremation with no service at all is a direct cremation, which we arrange for a fixed £1,295.

Related terms: Cremation and Eulogy. Every term in the funeral glossary.