Funeral costs can sometimes be hard to keep in perspective for some people. Because paying for a funeral is often unplanned (despite the clear benefits of pre-planning), the expense of a funeral can be unforeseen. At Stillinger Family Funeral Home in Greenfield, Indiana, we work hard to provide meaningful funeral services and life celebrations that provide true value. We also think it helps keep funeral costs in perspective by comparing them to the average cost of another life event: a wedding. Frankly, the reality might surprise you. Let’s take a look:
Joyous Celebrations
While funerals are often thought of as sad occasions, they can also be filled with joy. It can be heartwarming to be with family and friends to celebrate life moments. Weddings and funerals have that in common. And because they also can both create lasting memories, they deserve to be done professionally, with care, respect and reverence.
Once in a Lifetime
Another thing funerals and weddings have in common is that they are once-in-a-lifetime events – except, of course, when a person has multiple marriages. In that case, the already wide gap (see below) between the cost of a single funeral (a true once-in-a-lifetime event) and the total cost of multiple weddings grows even wider. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for a marriage begun by a lavish wedding to last only a short time; A funeral, on the other hand, can celebrate a life lived for 60, 70, 80 years or more.
The Surprising Truth About Funeral Costs
Funerals, like weddings, have many facets and involve many people to plan and carry out. Wedding costs largely involve expenses that are intangible or consumable such as catering costs and reception hall rentals. Funerals, on the other hand, often involve many tangible or permanent items such as caskets or urns, as well as memorial and life tribute keepsakes, and even cemetery monuments.
Now for the surprising truth about funeral costs vs wedding costs:
The average wedding in the United States, as recently reported by ValuePenguin, is just shy of thirty grand at $29,858. An average wedding in New York (Manhattan) will set you back nearly $90,000 while a typical wedding in Mississippi rings in at $12,769. (The average wedding cost in Indiana, by the way, is $19,129.)
Funerals, on the other hand, typically average between $7,000 and $10,000 nationally according to various sources. Naturally, many factors can affect funeral costs, such as the types of services, burial or cremation, and the type of casket, cemetery plot and monument chosen, if any. Regardless, when looking at average funeral costs as opposed to average wedding costs, a funeral in Indiana is generally only one-half to one-third as expensive as a wedding here.
At Stillinger Family Funeral Home, we work hard to provide true value and lasting memories for families as they honor their loved ones. To learn more about planning or pre-planning a funeral, contact us at (317) 462-5536.
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