Tell Your Own Story
Choosing to pre-plan your cemetery monument gives you complete control over the story that your monument tells.
Your cemetery monument will tell your life story for generations to come. Rather than leaving this critical and challenging task to somebody else, you can pre-plan your memorial. In doing so, you can give your family members the peace of mind they need that they are fulfilling your final wishes. And while we try to simplify the monument shopping process simple, there are some complicated choices to make. With our monument pre-planning option, you can select the style, size, and color of the monument and personalize it to reflect your religious beliefs and values best
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Why Should I Pre-Plan a Cemetery Monument?
Ordering a cemetery monument is a significant responsibility with many considerations to make. Key points to consider are what is permitted on my pre-purchased grave, the design, and the cost of my ideal memorial.
Purchasing a monument removes this immense responsibility from your family, ensuring they can handle this difficult time appropriately.
1. Financial Security
In addition to removing this responsibility from family members, pre-planning a cemetery monument can benefit you and your loved ones.
While several monument options range significantly in price, monuments are generally expensive. In today’s economy, monument prices inevitably fluctuate as time goes by. Purchasing a cemetery monument locks you in at current prices without the uncertainty of future charges.
Heirs often struggle to access inheritance money immediately following a loved one’s death. Purchasing a monument will eliminate your loved ones from experiencing accessibility issues, especially following a death.
Taking care of the headstone’s expense means that your family will have one less cost to worry about.
2. Emotional Security
The death of a loved one can leave families in severe emotional distress, especially when somebody passes unexpectedly. Pre-planning a monument ensures that your family will not suffer the emotional difficulty of ordering a monument, especially with other responsibilities.
Families must provide the Long Island monument company with essential details about their life to place a monument order. This process includes the birth date, a fitting epitaph, and headstone symbols. Pre-planning your monument before your death prevents family members from having to make these emotional choices, especially amidst the stresses of arranging a funeral, wake, and other services.
At St. Charles Monuments, we are sensitive to families’ difficulties during these tragic times. However, by pre-planning your monument, you can help family members avoid this.
3. Accurate Choices
The stylistic choices of a monument can speak volumes about a person’s history and character. However, making these selections may cause disagreements among family members or cause stress for one individual assigned to making these choices.
Pre-planning your monument removes the uncertainty that may drive anxiety during this time. In addition, making these stylistic choices by yourself will allow family members to focus on other essential tasks and process their grief.
How do I Pre-Plan a Cemetery Monument?
Fortunately, ordering a cemetery monument offers tremendous benefits without a long, drawn-out process.
Size/Style:
The style of your monument should be the first consideration, as it informs the rest of the design process. Headstones are the most common choice, while foot markers are best for smaller grave plots.
Material:
Carefully selecting a monument’s material is imperative, as the material can significantly influence the monument’s appearance. The material will also impact the monument’s durability. Marble, granite, and bronze are all common materials.
Inscription:
What should be inscribed on the monument? Please provide your name, birth date, and other relevant information. If you plan to share a headstone with a spouse, we can engrave additional names and dates after they have passed.
Epitaph:
An epitaph helps visitors have a meaningful and reflective experience by reminding them of the individual’s values. You can select an epitaph that you feel represents your values. Typically, epitaphs come from scripture, literature, song lyrics, or idioms. Alternatively, some elect to include their relationships (e.g. father, friend).
Photos:
Some people prefer a photo hand-etched onto their headstone as an additional enhancement. This photo could be of yourself, your family, or anything significant. A more cost-effective way to add an image to a memorial is a porcelain photo attached to the monument instead of etching the picture into the granite
At St. Charles Monuments, our goal is to make this process as simple as possible for you. Through our monument pre-planning program, you can ensure that your monument is beautiful, accurate, and representative of you. Please let us know if we can do anything to simplify this process for you and your family.
