The arrangement
Once you have made contact with us to engage our services we will make a time to meet and plan the funeral together. We call this meeting the “arrangement”.
It is important that you choose a funeral ceremony that is right for you and your family. We’ll talk you through the choices available and will take care of all the details. Our caring team of professionals will liaise with clergy and celebrants, doctors, hospitals, government departments, coroners and other officials, crematoria and cemetery authorities – so you don’t have to worry.
There are a lot of choices to make when arranging a funeral. We can explain the options and advise what may work best for you.
This could include:
- The different types of ceremony, religious or otherwise
- The best location for the service: a church or chapel, at home, at the graveside or crematorium
- Who should officiate: a priest, minister, celebrant or family members
- What music to have, whether recorded or live
- Whether you want to view the deceased, and where the viewing should be
- What sanitary preparation (embalming) may be desirable or necessary and the variety of options for taking care of your loved one
- Whether you want to have a burial or cremation
- Whether you want flowers or charitable donations
- The most appropriate funeral newspaper notice
- Whether to have the service live-streamed or recorded
- Casket selection
- The order of service, the choice of music and hymns
- A venue for post-funeral refreshments and how to arrange that
- What other professional help is available.
Taking care of the details
There are some things we will need to take care of for you:
- The registration of death and necessary documentation
- Contacting appropriate burial or cremation authorities, as well as contacting the doctor, coroner or hospital and collection of certificates
- Arranging transportation (sometimes known as repatriation) within New Zealand or internationally
- The provision and preparation of the casket
- Embalming to ensure hygienic preservation and natural presentation or other sanitary treatments as required
- Providing viewing facilities in comfortable premises
- Providing transport to and from the funeral in our fleet of hearses and cars.
It is up to you how little or how much you want our professional and experienced staff to help with other aspects of the arrangements, such as:
- Liaising with clergy or funeral celebrants
- Assisting with the service (eg pallbearing or lighting a thurible)
- Ordering flowers for the casket
- Writing and placing newspaper notices
- Arranging monumental masonry for the memorial stone
- Providing an urn
- Arranging the scattering or burial of ashes in Wellington or elsewhere.
When you meet with a Lychgate Funeral Director they will talk you through all of these options, tailoring a service that is right for you and your loved one. With our professional expertise we can smooth the way and make this difficult time a little bit easier.