Cremation Services
If your family has chosen cremation, we offer affordable services that help celebrate the life of your loved one while giving you several options for a public gathering, and arranging for a final resting place.
Traditional Funeral Service followed by Cremation
Many families find meaning and beauty in a traditional funeral service. With a traditional service followed cremation, you can still choose to have a final viewing, visitation, and a funeral service. However, instead of in-ground burial, the funeral will be followed by cremation. For the visitation or service prior to cremation, we have a choice of a beautiful cherry or oak wood casket that can be rented. Depending on your wishes, the cremated remains may be either returned to your family for storage in an urn, scattered, or interred in a cemetery or columbarium. This option will include fees for the funeral services as well as the fees associated with the cremation itself.
Memorial Service
The memorial service can be held in our chapel, a church, or any other venue the family chooses. We work with our families to design a service that honors their loved one with stories, music, or scripture. We also have life celebrants that lead services where clergy may not be chosen. Our resident celebrant, Lee Lamon, is trained in creating experiences that help start the healing process. We can also help you connect with local clergy to prepare ceremony scriptures. For families that may not tend towards any particular religion, we are connected with many non-denominational pastors; or, encourage a Eulogy Service, where people are invited to come forward and speak about the person who passed.
Graveside Service
A graveside or committal service is typically held immediately following the funeral service. In the case of a traditional funeral service followed by cremation, immediately burying the cremated remains may not be possible due to the process and paperwork involved, but with everything in order, cremation can typically occur immediately following the funeral service.
Permanent Memorialization
Keeping an Urn at Home
This is a common choice and families can select the perfect urn for their loved one. We also offer Keepsake/Memento urns, where several people may wish to have their own portion of cremated remains.
"Retention of cremated remains is permitted in Wisconsin.
Serious consideration should be given towards retaining the cremated remains since they will eventually become your survivor’s responsibility."
Placing the Urn in a Columbarium
This is also known as a niche. Many families find comfort in having a final resting place that they can visit. Certain cemeteries also provide you with the option to have custom emblems engraved on the niche door. Various niches come in a dual option, where two urns may be interred in one.
Burying the Urn
Similar to a casket, the in-ground burial of the urn allows for a final resting place. We have a selection of urns to choose from that act as a combination urn and burial vault to ensure that the cremated remains are not infiltrated with groundwater over the course of time. In the case where a metal or wood urn is selected, we offer separate vault containers that provide the same security from earth's elements.
Scattering the Cremated Remains
Some families find comfort scattering the cremated remains in a place that was special to their loved one. This is something that should be done only by following the proper protocol and procedure, and being granted permission by the various entities entitled with the decision.
"In the state of Wisconsin, cremated remains may not be freely scattered or otherwise disposed of upon public domain, or private property of another person. Public domain is any land owned by Federal, State, County or Municipal Governments and includes forests, lakes and streams. Disposition can only be done upon one’s own property or within a cemetery. Consideration should be given against placement upon your private property since in due course the property will be owned by another."
