When someone you know and love passes away it is common to worry about the funeral costs, life celebration service cost and other funeral expenses. The average funeral cost, price and fee will vary based upon the specific services that you are looking to include. End of life expenses will range anywhere from $5,000-$50,000 depending on the event and services that you will have at the event.
For example, if you are including cremation, burial services, a venue, food, and other services to honor your family member, the service fee will look different. To figure the average funeral price or cost, first you must ask yourself what type of funeral or life celebration service you have in mind.
Grief and the Death of a Loved One
You are overwhelmed after the passing of a loved one. Your friend or family member passes away unexpectedly and now families are tasked with planning a beautiful celebration of life for a loved one to honor and pay tribute to them. It is normal to worry and be concerned about the expense.
There are so many decisions involved with planning a celebration of life ceremony and the decisions you make affect the expense and funeral costs. Not only are you dealing with grief from losing a loved one, but you have not planned a celebration for hundreds of people since your wedding years ago.
Where do you start? Most people have no idea what their budget will be for funeral costs. One reason for that is not really knowing all the things that will be included in a celebration of life and the costs of those options like the venue, food, beverages, audio visual, rentals, cemetery plot, cemetery costs, casket, burial containers, officiant, spreading ashes, flowers, programs, and other arrangements.
Life Celebration Size and Cost
Celebration of Life memorials that have 50-250 friends and guests have the same aspects as a wedding. In San Diego, the cost of a 100-person wedding is $35,000. But unlike a wedding, you and your family were not saving and preparing for this for a year. There are ways that Eternally Loved has found to get the average Celebration of Life Memorial, fee and budget down for the total event of 100 guests to be around $15,000-$20,000. The budget all comes down to being creative with funeral arrangements and having a clear understanding of what options you want included.
Some flexibility in the days you will have it so there are more options when finding a place or venue. Maybe sacrificing options such as the filet mignon for chicken instead. Other ways to save money on the price is to avoid using a brand name item, versus a generic brand. This is a great way to save money and cut costs on the price or fee but will still allow you to have a nice life celebration for your loved one.
It is important to be clear with yourself and others on what you can and want to spend. I have stories of a lot of people who start with a $15,000 budget and then go up and up and when I ask them are you sure of the costs, they say they do not think they are spending enough and want many more upgrades. I remind them and you, that your loved one would not want you to go into debt for their beautiful day and funeral service.
What Affects Funeral and Cremation Costs?
There are so many decisions that may affect the average funeral costs, fee or price associated with a life celebration, funeral, or memorial service. There are cremation and burial costs or expenses, the cremation provider, cemetery plots, direct cremation, and other funeral ceremony expenses to consider. Typically, a life celebration will take place either after a funeral or memorial service, or it will take the place of it.
To streamline the decision-making process, funeral providers offer a range of preset type funeral and cremation packages (if permitted by the state). By grouping together key products and services, they simplify the choices and help families create personalized tributes.
Because there’s no one-size-fits-all type approach or way to planning funeral services or a memorial service, there are different funeral costs and expenses to consider. The person may contract with a provider for just one cemetery property and services, just funeral services, or both. Funeral homes provide comprehensive type care to families for any type of disposition or service.
Funeral home arrangements, packages and services include:
- Recovery of the loved one from hospice, hospital, or home and into the funeral home’s care at any time, on any day
- Funeral services and visitation prior to the memorial service or life celebration
- Processing and filing of necessary information and government permits
- Use of the funeral home’s chapels, family rooms, visitation rooms
- Grief support materials
- Direct cremation
- Casket, urn and/or cremation jewelry
- Cemetery providers
- Online obituary
- Cremation costs
- Burial costs
- Embalming, makeup and hair (particularly when visitation is desired)
- Transportation of the loved one and family
- Aftercare assistance
From our experience, some people are surprised to find out that many funeral providers and venues in San Diego charge plus pricing (you will see this sometimes on the quote ++). About 80% of the venues charge an additional service charge (anywhere from 21-28%) plus tax. So, when you see the BBQ buffet food option and it states $42 per person it is really $57 per person.
This is done on every cost from a venue that only allows their food caterers, bar, and vendors. There are expenses for the room itself and then on audio visuals (you will need options such as mic, mixer, speakers, projector, screen, or TVs), alcohol, possibly insurance, and so many other little details. If the person contracts with a place that allows outside vendors that usually lowers the cost a bit because there is no plus pricing.
Plan a memorial Service with Eternally Loved
Eternally Loved has been in business since 2016 and has helped over 100 families plan and coordinate an amazing celebration of life memorial ceremony event for their loved one. Our goal is to take away at least 80% of the life celebration planning and upfront work that would usually take people 50-80 hours to accomplish for a family. More importantly they are there to set up the celebrations, make sure everything is going smoothly during the entire event, and to tear down and pack up your life celebration event.
We do not want you to worry about the funeral cost or life celebration service cost. We will do what we can to assist you in making decisions that will help reduce the costs associated with your event and services. This way you can focus solely on the event and not worry about the price and funeral expenses.
This allows you to just show up, be present to honor the life that was lived, enjoy your family and friends, and leave whenever you want. You will have no hassles and worries during the celebration of life memorial or funeral service event. If you are looking for some help in planning and coordinating a life celebration event in San Diego County, Orange County, Riverside County, or Los Angeles County please call us at 951-837-5242 or email us for more information. You can send emails to the following email address: melissa@eternallyloved.com
