After cremation, you will need to decide on the way to memorialize your loved one. With so many options on the market, you should have no trouble choosing the one best suited for your departed loved one. Just make sure you take their last wishes into account when making the funeral arrangements.

Cremation or Presentation Urns

If you know you want to use the urn as a memorial, you can opt for a cremation urn. The urn can be personalized with messages or inclusions of favorite hobbies or sports teams.

Not everyone wants to keep the urns; some would rather entomb their loved one. Some families won't be able to come to a decision before the cremation service. If you can't decide, you can use a temporary urn until the decision is made. A temporary urn looks exactly like a presentation urn, but it is plain and significantly cheaper. There is no reason to invest money in personalizing a presentation urn until you are sure that is what you want.

Columbarium Niches

Columbarium niches are where sections of indoor or outdoor walls can be made to allow the cremation urns to be placed. They create a space for family members to visit regularly to pay their respects. There is also a space to leave flowers or other items to remember their dead.

Another, and sometimes more popular, option is to inter the remains and leave a marker in their place. This could be a rosebush or a small headstone. The space acts like a burial place, offering somewhere for loved ones to visit. Many interred cremains are placed in sections of regularly buried remains.

Keeping Loved Ones in a Locket

Cremation jewelry is becoming popular. Some of the ashes are used to make into gems or to be included inside lockets. It allows people to keep their loved ones close to them, and is very popular when it is the loss of a spouse or child.

If you don't want jewelry, you could always have the ashes added to paint. Artists are able to create masterpieces with the remains.

Place Markers After Scattering

You don't always have to keep the ashes. There are some people who would love to be scattered at sea or on top of mountains, and their loved ones respect their wishes by doing that. If you want to offer your loved one that respect, you can always opt for a place marker somewhere in a cemetery or crematorium. These may be plaques or benches, where you can visit regularly. The spot the ashes were scattered also becomes sacred.

The best part of cremation memorialization is you can split the ashes up and place them in more than one piece of jewelry or urn. This is ideal when you have more than one family member who wants to keep the deceased love one close to them. A mother and father who lose a child, for example, may each want a necklace with the child's ashes.