Memorial Service Information

Memorial Services in Clarksville & Erin, TN

Name: McReynolds Nave & Larson Funeral Home
Address: 1209 Madison St, Clarksville, TN, 37040
Telephone: 931-647-3371

Our staff has years of experience providing quality memorial services to families in Clarksville & Erin. Below, we have provided you with a breakdown explaining what a memorial service is as well as some tips to help you come up with great memorial service ideas for your loved one. If you have any questions about what you read here, please do not hesitate to contact us at your earliest convenience.

What is a Memorial Service?

Unlike a traditional funeral, A memorial service is a ceremony that memorializes and honors the deceased after the body has been cremated or buried. A memorial service has the same meaning of any other type of funeral service; honor and pay tribute to the deceased. The memorial service often takes place weeks or even months after the death has occurred.

A memorial service can be held in a church, the funeral home or a community hall, or somewhere of importance to the deceased and family. There is usually music, selected readings, and a eulogy. Memorial services can be further personalized as a celebration-of-life.

Memorial Service vs. Funeral

The biggest difference of a traditional funeral and a memorial service is that the body is not present in a casket at a memorial service. However, an urn with the loved one’s ashes may be present at a memorial service. Both traditional funeral services and memorial services have structure, and both bring the community together in support and remembrance.

However, a traditional funeral service is much more structured and formal. A traditional funeral service is often associated with religion so it is often led by a member of clergy, whereas a memorial service is led by a celebrant or master of ceremonies. Memorial services often allow for each guest to participate to some level, where guests of a traditional funeral are really just there to observe and reflect.

Memorial Service vs. Celebration of Life

A celebration of life is an event that truly celebrates the loved one’s passions, intellectual pursuits, personality, and personal accomplishments. A celebration of life can really have no structure at all and can be really anything you want.

A memorial service could be best described as a gentle mix of a traditional funeral and celebration of life. A memorial service has some structure, but it still allows you the flexibility to make the ceremony unique and personalized to fit the individual being honored. Also the mood generally lies somewhere in the middle of completely somber and celebratory.

Benefits of Memorial Services

We find the most common reason people choose a memorial service is that they want the extra time to plan a ceremony. Since a memorial service can take place after the body has been buried or cremation, there is no rush to organize a ceremony. Immediately following a death, families are not emotionally ready to have a ceremony – They need time to grieve. Relatives and friends that live far away can organize their schedule to travel for the memorial service.

Often those not religious choose to have a memorial service as opposed to a traditional funeral because traditional funerals are more often associated with religion.

Memorial services tend to be cheaper than holding a traditional funeral.

As mentioned above, for some people memorial services serve as the perfect compromise between a celebration of life and a traditional funeral service.

Some people find celebrations of life do not pay enough attention to the deceased and turn into solely a party.

Learn How To Plan a Memorial Service

Memorial Service Ideas

Our experience has shown us that many of today's families want more than a traditional funeral . This can be done by bringing more of the personality and lifestyle of the deceased into the arrangements. By displaying photographs or staging the event around a favorite pastime, a memorial service can become more personal and meaningful.

Planning a memorial service can be challenging, we have provided some prompting questions to help you better personalize your loved one's memorial service:

What did your loved one like to do?
What was he or she like as an individual?
What was their profession and how did that shape their life?
Was your loved one spiritual?
Was he or she proud of their cultural or ethnic heritage?

For the Sailing Lover

If your loved one enjoyed spending their free time on the water, pay tribute to that with this sailing-themed celebration of life. If you are planning to hold the service at a funeral home or another venue, decorate the space with a nautical theme. This could include sailing hats for guests to wear, a large ship steering wheel or miniature tall ships set out as the centerpiece for tables around the room.

If you really want to think outside the box, hold the event on a yacht or large ship. If you can find a vessel to accommodate the guests, use it as the venue and celebrate your loved one’s life on the water. You could even use this as an opportunity to spread their ashes during the service.

For the Sports Fan

For some people, sports are a major part of their life. Whether it's watching every game or participating in rec leagues every week, it can be something you invest a lot of time into. If this was the case for your loved one, honor them with a sports-themed celebration of life. For this theme, consider decorating the venue with memorabilia and decorations of their favorite team.

If you want to take this theme even further, organize a tournament in memory of them. Whether it’s a softball tournament or golf tournament, you can have guests gather to spend time playing the sport that the deceased loved. You could even collect donations at the event and make a charitable donation in memory of the deceased.

For the Charitable Person

Was your loved one a caring and charitable person? If so, you could organize an event around celebrating the life of the deceased while raising money for a charity they loved. The charity event could be an elaborate event or a casual party where people can leave a donation to be pooled together and donated in the deceased’s name.

For the Chef

Did your loved one love food? If they were the type of person who loved to make or eat delicious food and appreciated trying new things, organize a dinner party that serves their favorite foods. This will allow guests to eat the foods your loved one loved, and feel a connection to them. You could even turn the service into a potluck and ask guests to try and recreate your loved one’s signature dishes.

For the Gamesman

Board games are something that can bring people together for hours of laughter and entertainment. If your loved one was someone who enjoyed playing games, including that in their celebration of life. Not only will it provide guests a different atmosphere than they may be accustomed to at funeral services, it allows them time to share stories with one another.

For this theme, set up board games, cards or other table games around the venue. Ask them to share memories of the deceased as they play games together. If you want to get really creative, set up Jenga blocks. Ask the guests to each write a memory on a block when they remove it from the tower. After the service, your family will have a game full of memories to take home and remember your loved one next time you play.

Use of a Civil Celebrant

Often memorial services are led by celebrants. A celebrant is a person who has been trained to conduct formal ceremonies, such as weddings, baptisms and funerals. They are not clergy; instead they are experienced masters-of-ceremony and story-tellers. A celebrant works closely with surviving family to create a ceremony which reflects the beliefs, cultural background, values and aspirations of your deceased loved one, and your family. If you think you would be best served by a celebrant, please speak with your funeral director.

Places to Hold a Memorial Service

You have a lot of flexibility when it comes to a location especially since the body will not be present. We have had families hold memorial services at beaches, community centers, parks, restaurants, banquet halls, and at family homes. For some that want some religious facets it is probably best choose a place of worship. Keep mind that you want a space/location that can hold a large group of people and that has the amenities for any of the features you have planned. For example, if you want a photo slideshow, choosing the beach as your location would not be ideal.

We're Here to Advise, Assist, and Guide You

Using the above five questions as our guide, we will spend the time to help create a fitting memorial service for your loved one. Please call us to learn the details of our memorial service planning process.