7 tips for planning an authentic memorial event

There is no “right” way to celebrate the special people who have impacted your life—memorial events come in all shapes and sizes!

When planning a Celebration of Life, funeral, or any other memorial event, remember to focus on what feels right for your loved one, you, and your community. Ask yourself, “What would my person want?” Make that your guiding light and you’ll be sure to plan an authentic celebration that feels like your loved one.

We’ve gathered together a few more tips to help you plan a memorial event as unique and memorable as your loved one. Check them out below!

A massive hug and a special thanks to our wonderful LifeWeb community member, Alex R., for sharing advice, inspiration, and the photos below from the incredible Celebration of Life he hosted to honor his sister, Emily.

Tip #1: Get the word out with custom celebration of life invitations

Not sure where to start planning? Invitations are a great first step!

A Celebration of Life might be a new thing for some of your guests, especially if the mood you’re aiming for is more festive than a traditional funeral. On top of telling your community when and where your celebration will take place, invitations can also set the tone for your event and help guests prepare for everything that’s to come.

There are tons of great (and free!) tools on the web that make creating invitations a breeze. Plus, websites like Canva and Paperless Post have hundreds of invitation templates to choose from so you can find the best one to fit your event and personalize as much as you’d like!

Check out these useful tools for creating custom invitations:

Whether you decide to share the details of your person’s celebration through printed invitations, email, or on social media, your invitations will be personalized to perfection!

Pro Guidance: Evites are a great cost saving option and make collecting RSVPs painless! Our team especially loves Paperless Posts’ “Flyer” tool, which gives you the flexibility to share evites through email, text message, or via copy-pasted URL link.

Celebrating Emily: Emmy loved Sasquatch and spending time outside with her daughters, friends, and family. She was an avid hiker and distance runner whose favorite social media hashtag was “OptOutside”. The invitations created for her Celebration of Life scream “Emily” and set the tone for a fun, outdoorsy event.

Tip #2: Set the scene with personalized decorations

Was your person a huge basketball fan? Did they love all things nature and outdoors? Or maybe they were the biggest Beatles fan you knew, always ready with a lyric to fit the moment. Whatever your loved one’s hobbies, passions, or driving forces may have been, include them in their Celebration of Life by decorating your event space with items that held special meaning to them.

Incorporating personalized decor can help remind your community of who your loved one was and what made them, “them!”

Looking for some inspiration? Check out these sites for creative decor you can DIY or purchase:

Pro Guidance: Your space isn’t the only thing that can reflect your person’s personality. Invite guests to wear a team jersey, your person’s favorite color, or another article of clothing that ties into your theme!

Celebrating Emily: Emily’s family decorated her party with photos of Emmy throughout her life, including printed & framed versions that guests could take home, her favorite t-shirts and running jerseys, and custom decorations like the pendant in the video above which highlighted some of the incredible things that made Emily’s light shine so brightly in the world.

Tip #3: Set the mood with music

Music can play a big role in setting the tone for your Celebration of Life. When deciding what songs might be right for your event, think about how you want your person’s community to feel or the mood you’re trying to evoke—Is it celebratory or serene? Upbeat or reflective?—then select songs that make you feel that way.

Alternatively, you can focus on playing songs that your person loved!

Once you’ve got a good idea of the songs you’d like to play, use them to create a playlist. Add your songs to your favorite app, burn them onto a CD, or even if you hire a DJ to manage your music. With a playlist on hand you’ll have one less thing to worry about during your memorial event. Just start your playlist, then walk away and focus on connecting with your community.

Pro Guidance: Our LifeWeb 360 team loves making collaborative playlists using Spotify - it’s easy to use and free, and you can have lots of people add songs to the playlist! Plus, you can share your Spotify playlist via text, email, or even through social media with your entire community! Even when the event has ended, everyone can keep listening to your playlist and continue to remember your person!

Tip #4: Get your community involved with an activity your person would love

Adding an activity (or two!) to your person’s Celebration of Life is a great way to help break the ice, get guests reminiscing, and spark memories! Organized activities don’t need to be complicated. Look to your person’s favorite hobbies for inspiration and you’ll be sure to find an activity that’s easy to set-up and really feels like your person.

Did they love going on bike rides? Kick-off their celebration with a group ride. Were they always the one to organize game night? Place some of their favorite board games on each table. Or maybe they were a dessert connoisseur? Ask each guest to bring a dessert that reminds them of your person. The possibilities are endless… (but don’t worry, we’ve compiled a list below to help you get started!)

Some more activity ideas:

Pro Guidance: Was there a cause your person was passionate about or an organization they loved to support? Consider engaging their community in an activity that supports the cause/organization during the event and continue their work!

Celebrating Emily: Given Emily’s passion for the outdoors and her career as an educator, rock painting was an appropriate and fun activity for all ages at her Celebration of Life.

Tip #5: Engage your person’s community and create an authentic, unique keepsake

Your person’s life has many “threads,” from the things and groups of people most important to them, to how they've made others feel. While your person’s community is gathered, seize the opportunity to bring those threads together to create something truly special to last beyond the event.

Some ideas include:

Record a musical piece honoring your person’s favorite song.
Plant a garden filled with their favorite plants together.
Get a large canvas and have paint available for everyone to contribute to
Print a custom paint by numbers canvas of a photo of your person, grab some paint and brushes, and have everyone contribute to it.
Ask people to bring a photo or small object that reminds them of your person, and then weave them into a large loom with an intention for the future
Create a memory booth or area for people to self-record a video, then compile into a tribute video after the event for everyone to enjoy

There is so much you can do to create an authentic keepsake. It just takes a little imagination!

Pro Guidance: Recruit a tech-savvy friend or family member to move around the celebration recording short toasts in honor of your person. Use a tool like VidDay to easily turn your clips into a memorial video that highlights the impact your person has had on their community. People that weren’t able to attend the event can even contribute to the video!

Celebrating Emily: A booth was set up in a quiet area of the party where people could record a video memory on a tablet. Emmy’s family then turned these recordings into a compilation video as a keepsake after the event. Everything was DIY!

Tip #6: Have a designated event photographer

This tip comes directly from LifeWeb community member Alex R:

”There are going to be so many friends and family at the event that you haven’t seen in a long time or even expect to see. It’s worth either hiring a cheap photographer or designating 1-2 guests to take photos on their smartphone of event attendees!”

Tip #7: Keep the celebration going

Of course, just because the Celebration of Life event has come to an end does not mean you will stop celebrating your person’s life or that their impact on this world will end.

Use a free tool like LifeWeb 360 to quickly and easily create a digital space where your person’s entire community can continue to come to share stories, photos, and videos over time. Together you can create a LifeWeb that captures the essence of your person. And, every time someone does something in honor of your person, or a new memory pops into their head, they’ll have a space to share it.

LifeWeb 360 is also a great place to gather photos from your person’s Celebration of Life event.

Every LifeWeb has customizable “life threads” that help organize the memories, sort of like tags for the things and groups of people most important in your person’s life. Consider making a custom life thread for “Celebration of Life” to easily group the photos from the event together on the LifeWeb.

Pro Guidance: Print informational cards with the link or a QR code to your person’s LifeWeb and have them out at the Celebration of Life to easily spread the word.

Celebrating Emily: Emily’s LifeWeb continues to receive memories from her innumerable friends, family, students, and others inspired to live life as she did.

Can you share ideas with the LifeWeb 360 community?

We’d love to see photos and hear ideas about what you’re planning for an upcoming Celebration of Life, or learn what made an event you already hosted spectacular. Sharing your tips, advice, and experience, like the above photos from Emily’s Celebration of Life, helps our entire LifeWeb community celebrate life and the whole world become a little bit kinder!

Email Hello@LifeWeb360.com with your photos & ideas to share
or leave a comment below!

Want more ideas & tips?

Our LifeWeb 360 team has gathered together some of the best tips, most helpful advice, and loads of inspiring snapshots from our community to help make planning a Celebration of Life as easy as possible.

Visit our Planning Hub to check them out, and don’t forget to download your free Guide to Planning a Celebration of Life.

Together with our community, we’ll help inspire and support you as you plan a Celebration of Life as special and unique as your loved one.

This article was written with love by Ali, Sam, & Maggie from the LifeWeb 360 team.

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Ideas for Hosting a Celebration of Life