Putting together a funeral order of service

There is no fixed form. Most follow the same shape, and it is a good starting point to change as you need.

If a blank page is the hardest part, start from this and change what does not fit. Every service is different, and the celebrant or funeral director will know the running order for the one you are planning. There are five full running orders — a Catholic Mass, a church service, a celebration of life, a committal and a memorial — on their own page.

A4 folded in half to A5 — printed the way a folded brochure is — is the usual choice: four pages, which fits a photograph, the running order and a thank-you without crowding. If there are hymn words, several readings or a page of photographs, an eight-page A5 booklet — two A4 sheets folded and stapled — gives the room. For a short service, a single DL card (99 × 210mm) printed both sides is enough.

Choose a heavy paper, around 250gsm. It feels like a keepsake rather than a handout, and it does not flop in the hand. A matt finish is easy to read under a chapel’s lights and takes a pen, for anyone who wants to write on it; a satin or gloss one makes a photograph a little richer.

How many to print

Count the people you expect and add about a fifth. Families nearly always keep a few, and send copies afterwards to people who could not be there. Running short at the door is far worse than having twenty left over.

How soon it needs to be ready

Allow about a week if you can. The wording usually takes longest — waiting on the running order from the celebrant, and on the family agreeing it. Once the wording and photographs are settled, printing and delivery take 2-4 working days from payment, which follows your approving the proof. If the service is sooner than that, say so before anything else and you will be told straight away whether the date can be met.

The photographs

Use the clearest photograph you have, and the original file where you can — a photo sent through a messaging app arrives smaller than it was taken. An older printed photo is best scanned, or photographed flat, in daylight and without a flash. If you are not sure a photo is sharp enough, the free resolution checker will tell you at the size it will print; nothing is uploaded.

Hymns, songs and readings

The words of most traditional hymns and older poems are free to print. More recent songs are protected by copyright, and printing their lyrics needs permission. Many churches hold a licence that covers printing words for their own services, so the simplest thing is to ask the celebrant, the church or the funeral director whether the words you want can be printed. The readings guide has the full words of the poems, psalms and hymns that can be printed without asking, and names the well-known ones that cannot.

Before it is printed

Have someone who was not involved in writing it read the proof — slowly, out loud. Names, the spelling of relatives’ names and the dates are the things most often wrong, and the hardest to see when you have written them yourself.

The free template lays the four pages out from the wording and a photograph and gives you the PDF, for a home printer or for us. Or we can set it for you from the wording and photographs and send it back as a proof you can check on your phone. Nothing is printed until the family approves it, and it can be delivered to your home or straight to the funeral director.

Most services need fewer copies than our printed price lists start at, so each order of service is quoted: tell us how many, the size, and the date of the service, and you will have a written price the same business day. You can also call on (02) 5302 3372 if it is easier to talk it through. A memorial bookmark to go with it is quoted on the same job.

Ask for a price