Funeral Industry Explained - Why So Many Casket Choices?
LIFE is so full of choices we must make every day, and even in death the choices we need to make continue.
Our funerals present us and our loved ones with a dazzling array of decisions to make about how our final send-off should be held.
Whether you are actively involved in planning your own funeral and helping your family know your wishes, or you have found yourself unexpectedly having to arrange and organize a funeral, many decisions need to be made – not least of which is the kind of casket to be used.
And in today’s world, there is an exceptionally large range from which to choose, with an equally large range of prices attached.
Some decisions will be purely personal based on style and aesthetics, but others will have a more practical side to them depending on the style of funeral you have chosen as well as any local laws or regulations by your state, or even from the cemetery itself if one is being buried.
Ideally, preplanning helps as natural emotions run high after the death of a loved one, and making such a large decision very quickly is not ideal, especially when potentially spending thousands of dollars.
Most caskets are made from wood or metal – but clearly, the types of material will have a heavy impact on the cost of the casket.
For traditional burials, there is the widest range of choices. There are different rules governing caskets suitable for cremations.
If you prefer traditional hardwood, caskets are available in mahoganies or walnuts but will be towards the top of the price range. More commonly used are pines and poplar at lower price points. Of the metal choices, stainless steel is the lowest cost option, followed up the range by copper and bronze. Metal caskets will last much longer underground followed by hardwoods.
In today’s world caskets are increasingly available in other materials as well including fiberglass and plastics, or caskets made from cheaper man-made woods like plywood or fiberboard covered in veneers or cloth.
Once your material choice has been made, there are just as many decisions to be considered for features on the casket.
The lid itself usually comes in half-couch or full-couch. A half-couch lid means you can open the top half while leaving the bottom closed, quite common for funerals where there is a viewing beforehand. A full-couch is a one-piece lid, more common when the body is not going to be viewed first.
Interior fabrics of a casket also come with many choices, with velvet, crepe, and satin being most popular but other fabrics are available and in almost any chosen color. The style of fabric installation is yet another choice to be made – tailored, tufted, or ruffled are standard.
Yet more choices need to be made with fixtures such as handles, stylings, and shaping of the casket, corners engraved with symbols appropriate to the deceased – even memory drawers can be installed to place special items you wish to be buried alongside the deceased.
Cremations require slightly different considerations when choosing a casket – the key one is there can be no metal components in a cremation casket. Cremation itself does not even require a casket and it is possible to rent one for any funeral service beforehand.
If you do wish a casket for cremation, it must be fully combustible, and to that end, there are growing choices of other materials available which many people consider more environmentally friendly – unfinished wood, cardboard, fiberboard, or even woven reeds. These are also often much cheaper than traditional caskets, and a heavy cardboard casket could be as low as $150.
