Tailor Made Funerals

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Please consider our planning services to prepare your wishes as you would like, or if it is after your loved one has passed, you may like to consider our Life Support Service. 

 

To some extent, all funerals are tailor made and aim to celebrate the life of the person who has passed.  The funeral directors are usually very helpful as is a local vicar or crematorium. 

 

Essentially though, there is more choice and control than people usually realise and there is usually a commemorative service available that will help provide those wishes.  For example, a friend kept his very old green 1950s pick up truck in tip top condition knowing that his end was coming.  It was to carry his coffin through the village from his house to the church for a traditional church and burial service.  Everyone was happy to gather outside the house and walk, following the wonderfully kept old green truck up to the local church creating a large and respectful entourage.  Another had a cremation with all in attendance and had everyone wear bright pink feather boas to the service and afterwards everyone sang copa cabana.  The list and uniqueness of each celebration funeral is endless.   I have my own ideas about what I would like and they may be very different to yours. 

 

Sometimes a death is unexpected and sudden.  This creates a whole new set of challenges that can be extraordinarily difficult to navigate when you are highly distressed.  Making choices and decisions as well as taking action on things at such a time can be very challenging.  There’s a lot to contend with.  It is because we know this we developed the Life Support Service.

 

If at all possible, it is good to preplan or consider your wishes well before they will be needed which helps to remove stress and burdens at the time it is needed as well as ensure that you are relaxed and of sound mind when you do.  You can amend and grow this as you wish and even do this with other loved ones.  For example, are you wishing to have your fullest celebration before or after the funeral and wish to instruct and provide for that?  Or, are you planning on having the fuller celebration at a Living Funeral and something different such as a woodland burial or direct cremation at the time you pass?

 

The planning services provided by Tipi Wills & Mediation, uniquely place us in the position of being able to support you, if you should wish it, in the planning and organisation that follows the death of a loved one.  There are numerous notifications, obtaining of the Will, establishing the executor(s), instructing solicitors to obtain probate, sorting inheritance tax before probate can be granted, registering the death to obtain the death certificate and maybe dealing with a coroner first, as well as putting into place the pre-organised funeral wishes, or, making decisions about the funeral that have not been looked at before.  There is a lot to do and you may feel it is too much to manage without support.  If you would like support and/or guidance following the death of a loved one that helps spread the load and gives help in making decisions and choices that are what you want, then please consider using our Life Support Service which covers the usual tasks and organisation such as notifications and organising the funeral.  If you would like additional support through an inquest, solicitors, protracted probate problems then please do discuss with us and see whether we can help and agree the fee.  It is difficult to provide a fixed price because this is entirely dependent on your unique circumstances.

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If you are dealing with end of life Care, or planning for serious or terminal illness you may wish to consider/review a Will, Lasting Power of Attornies, Living Will, Advanced Care Plan or prepared funeral wishes, then all our planning services are available to you and please contact us to tell us your wishes.  The Life Support Service can commence the second you notify us of the loss of a loved one and can be as simple or comprehensive as you wish.

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Please consider our planning services to prepare your wishes as you would like, or if it is after your loved one has passed, you may like to consider Life Support Service. 

 

When considering a funeral, you may prefer something traditional, or incorporate ancient rituals or are entirely new rituals.  Today it is possible to choose a wide variety of options.

 

The type of funerals now on offer to most of us in the UK, and here on the Isle of Wight include:

 

 

 Traditional style Funerals that are faith based

 A wake before or after the funeral

 Direct Cremation / Unattended Funerals

 Cremation with a wake

 Woodland Burials / Eco Funerals

 Humanist Funerals

 Living Funerals

 Silk lined hard wood coffins, cardboard, wicker, bamboo – essentially whatever you would like that you feel is appropriate for its setting

 Living Urn / Tree Pod – Grow me into a tree

 A tailor made combination of the above

 

 

Have you considered a Living Funeral? 

 

Traditionally a wake is a social gathering that was held before the funeral to allow people to pay their respects to the departed.  In times gone by, family and friends were expected to keep a watch over the body to keep evil spirits away.  This tradition has now evolved into what is known as a Living Funeral so that you do not wait until a personal has passed, but you visit at a celebration of their life  and say goodbye in person.

It is often said that it is weddings and funerals that bring people together and how people wish that it wasn’t that way.  So, a Living Funeral has become an opportunity for the person who knows they are dying to organise to see everyone for one last time.  It is not at all uncommon for someone on their deathbed to wait until all members of the family have visited, then leave, before they pass.  Whether or not you have a faith, having the opportunity to say goodbye to someone you love beforehand is a tremendous help in the grieving process that is to come.  This is borne out in the difficulty of processing loss where there is a sudden death.  It seems such an obvious step forward, to share laughter, tears, thoughts and memories with the actual person before they pass. 

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Funerals and methods of saying goodbye can be diverse with a variety of traditions and ancient rituals.   Today a great variety of choices are now open to us but can also remain very personal to the person and family.  The one thing that does not change, is our need to say goodbye, for a huge variety of reasons.  This is our rite of passage that enables us to walk through our grief.  Think of the elephant families that revisit the graveyard of bones and tusks of their lost family members.  It is an inherent need and we can choose how we wish to buried and remembered.  Like David Bowie you can have a Direct Cremation if you wish to avoid too much fuss, or you can provide as much traditional, luxury, dignity and memorials as you wish and you may wish to devise a combination that suits you such as a Living Funeral with a direct cremation later, or a wake and church service with all in attendance, a cremation with all in attendance.  The choice is yours.   Many of us will also have that friend who has put aside funds to make sure you all have a good party on them afterwards.

 

We understand funerals and rituals are not just for paying our respects.  “As my grandfather said when my brother died, we have to look after the living now, and having been a Navy war veteran he knew a thing or two about that” said Patricia.  A person can plan their own funeral or leave some wishes that helps someone else to do that on your behalf.