Um, I always throw up my hands just with my own inability to answer that question, it’s, it’s a range. How much does it cost to get married today? I guess you could go to the Justice of the Peace, pay a license fee and get it done. Um, what are costs of the implications of someone dying? I guess you can get it done for under $3,000, you can spend over $30,000.

Any funeral – regardless of what type it is, from very simple to a very elaborate funeral – is always going to be three parts.

The first part that we educate the family on is our services. What is it you want me to do for you? Simple cremation? Just register the event? Do you want to have our chapel? Are we doing something at a venue? Your home? A park? A church? What is it that you are requiring of our staff to provide for you? We don’t do cookie-cutter funerals, so we really customize those events, asking you, “Is it important to have the body there? Do you wish a viewing? Do you want closure first? Do you need limousines? What is is you’d like? A reception afterwards?” When you’ve done those aspects, we know what we’ll be doing for you.

The second component would be the necessary disbursements. A lot of people don’t realize, but the cost to the crematorium, the cemetery, the news paper notices, maybe ancillary products, be it memorial books, cards, DVDs, a clergy or a celebrant, uh, the death certificates. Those things all add up. So we go over that secondly so that you know what you have spent, prior to making that third decision.

I guess it would be coldly called merchandise. Did you wish to purchase a casket? Is there an urn? Is there going to be a grave marker? Are you memorializing the spot? But the whole process as you go through that way is for us to let you know that you are in charge of what you are spending and of what the total cost will be.

Extravagance can find expression around someone’s death. You can spend a lot of money, but nobody has to.

There is honorariums for, for those that are speaking, there’s food, there’s flowers. And again, you may want lots of that, you may want just, just the, uh, some very simple refreshments.

It can vary so much, so another reason why people should come in and, and sit down with a prearrangement counsellor and discuss what they would like, and then we could give them a, a more accurate cost.

So I think, the most important part is that we, uh, itemize what we can for the family, help them understand the cost implications of their decisions and to help them come up with something that’s in their budget.