Cremation services in North Versailles, PA furnish tons of choices when it comes to planning and personalizing. This flexibility is great to not only have a unique and meaningful service for the deceased, but also because it gives the bereaved an easier time planning and executing the memorial or cremation itself.

Cremations also offer choices in the type of cremation. There are three main types of cremation services: funeral, memorial, and direct. Each one offers variations on the basic cremation idea, with differences in price, planning, and timeline.

• Cremation with Funeral – These cremation services have a regular funeral followed by a cremation instead of a burial. As with a traditional funeral, cremation services with a funeral usually have a visitation or wake within two or three days of death. These cremations come with more costs than other types, mainly embalming and caskets. Embalming is the process in which the body is preserved for the viewing and does cost money. The viewing and funeral also require a casket, not just a plain cremation box. Funerals followed by a cremation can be hosted by a religious leader, funeral celebrant or family member, and generally take place in a funeral home or church. The typical service includes readings, music, poems, sermons, eulogies and prayers.
• Memorial Cremations – Memorial cremations are very similar to cremations with funerals save for one big difference: the body is not present at the service. This type of cremation service can be held at a later date after the death, sometimes weeks or months later. This is possible because the body is cremated directly after the death. The body can be present in a way at a memorial in a cremation urn, or the family can choose to display photos of the deceased. Since there is no body, the service can be held almost anywhere like a park, church, home, funeral home, or even on a beach. Usually, the remains are returned to the family right before the memorial so they can inter, scatter, or display them following the ceremony.
• Direct Cremation Services – Direct cremation services are the most cost effective and efficient cremation services. As the name denotes, the body is cremated directly after death and the remains are united with the family without a ceremony or service. Typically, all the direct cremation costs are included in one flat fee, from transportation to the cremation itself. This method is cheap but doesn’t offer any sort of celebration or honor for the deceased’s life.

Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc. is here to help if you want to learn more about the different kinds of cremations. We offer a wide range of North Versailles, PA cremation services and our years of industry experience give us the expertise needed to help you choose what’s best for you and your loved ones in your time of loss. Please pay us a visit or give us a call to learn more about what we can do for you.