Cremation funeral services are services that are planned when someone opted to be cremated. Basically, there are no real differences between cremation services and funeral services, except that there would most likely be an urn as opposed to a casket as the body is absent.

Cremation services aren't required to happen within a certain time frame like a traditional funeral service, so this may make it easier on the family of the loved one since they have more time to prepare. But cremation memorials should still be planned with the utmost care, keeping these top three matters in mind.

• Time and Place of the Memorial Service

Since you can hold cremation funeral services just about anywhere, you may want have it somewhere other than a funeral home. Cremation services are a reflective occasions still, they don't need to be made even more depressing by having the service at a funeral home.

You could contact a local church to inquire about holding the service there. Even if you aren't a member of the church, the pastor might allow cremation funeral services to be held at the church anyway purely out of regard and respect for the deceased.

There are many churches that allow weddings to be held in the church by non-members. You may need to attend a regular church service or two prior to the memorial service, so keep that in mind when you contact the churches.

If the deceased was not an especially religious person, you may think about having the service elsewhere, maybe at the deceased's favorite park or meeting place or even a banquet room at their favorite restaurant.

• Set an Appropriate Atmosphere for the Service

If you're planning to have someone present the main eulogy, make sure it was someone who was actually close to the departed loved one. A childhood best friend, for example, can be requested to speak first, especially if they remained in close contact with the loved one until their passing.

You can also ask a few other people ahead of time if they'd like to speak or tell some stories.

For indoor cremation funeral services, when appropriate to the tone of the service or something the loved one may have liked, you can have memorial candles for people to light as they either enter or leave the service.

• Memorial Keepsakes for Cremation Funeral Services

Normally, families of the loved one give keepsakes to those guests who have come to the service to pay their last respects and in support of the family of the deceased.

These keepsakes are usually funeral programs and funeral prayer cards that are tokens of appreciation to the guests who have arrived.

Other keepsakes that are given at cremation funeral services in addition to, or even instead of, programs or prayer cards are memorial bookmarks, which can complement the programs to commemorate the memorial service of the loved one.

Ideal for cremation funeral services, memorial bookmarks can be printed with a photo of the departed and a favorite verse or saying on one side and the reverse side can be printed with the date of the loved one's passing and the date and location of the memorial service.

• Funeral Thank You Notes

Some families opt to send out funeral thank you notes to those who attended the service. You can add memorial bookmarks to the notes instead of handing them out at the service, just as an extra memorial keepsake to remember the loved one by.