How Should I Invite Guests to a Funeral?

To some extent, how you invite people to a funeral or memorial service depends on the type of service you plan to have. If you are having a funeral with the body present, it will usually need to take place within a week of the person’s death. (If the body is embalmed or refrigerated, this may be extended to two to four weeks.) Thus, it’s important to invite the people you would like to attend in the most efficient way possible, which is typically via email or by phone. If you have access to the cell phone of the person who died, you can use their contact list to find this information if it’s not readily available anywhere else. 

If, on the other hand, you’re planning a memorial service, you have much more flexibility in when you have the event and how you invite attendees. If you want to use email, you can send invitations via paperless post or Evite. But if there’s time, sending invitations via the US Postal Service gives you the opportunity to design a personalized invitation in any number of ways. For example, you can: 

• Buy pre-made invitations at your local stationery store
• Order custom invitations from an online retailer like PaperSource or Shutterfly
• Create DIY invitations that you design yourself or from a template from an online source such as Etsy
• Hire someone to design and create invitations for you.

You may also wish to add more personal touches, such as: 

• A photo of the person who died
• A favorite poem or lyrics from a song
• A floral or religious motif

Additionally, you can add more detail about the service you’re planning, such as: 

• Dress code (casual, bright colors, no black etc)

• Whether guests should make donations in lieu of flowers
• What guests should bring, for example, a favorite photo, a bouquet of wildflowers
• Whether food and/or beverages will be served and who will provide them
• Other special requests

Sources 

Paperless Post. https://www.paperlesspost.com/cards/category/memorial-service 

Evite. https://www.evite.com/gallery/category/funeral_memorial_service/ 

Paper Source. https://www.papersource.com/stationery/announcements/memorial 

Shutterfly. https://www.shutterfly.com/ideas/celebration-of-life-invitation-wording/ 

Etsy. https://www.etsy.com/listing/829559813/electronic-funeral-announcement-funeral?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=memorial+invitations&ref=sr_gallery-1-3&organic_search_click=1&pro=1