Funeral directors take charge of caring for the remains of people who have died. They help families plan funeral services, and coordinate and manage arrangements for services. (Source: ALIS)

Funeral celebrants organize and lead a personalized funeral service or life celebration for a person who has died. The celebrant works with the family to create a ceremony that reflects the deceased's life and the family's wishes, which can be non-religious, spiritual, or include limited religious elements. 

Dr. Alan Wolfelt, respected grief counselor, author, and educator, has done extensive research into the purposes of a funeral and why we, as people, need them.  For more information, you can consult this article: Funerals are important... because life is important.

The simplest way to hire a funeral celebrant is to request the celebrant at the funeral home. The funeral home can provide the adequate space, professional staff and all services required to ensure a seamless ceremony, reception and other elements.

A family can hire an independent funeral celebrant directly, however, they will have to coordinate all other elements of the ceremony such as finding a venue, providing a sound system and all other adequate equipment as well as volunteers to help with duties normally performed by professional funeral home staff.  The rate and payment options are provided directly to the family by the funeral celebrant.

To better understand how to make your wishes known ahead of time, below is an excerpt from the Centre for Public Legal Education of Alberta - CPLEA's document Estate Planning 101

Farewell ceremony

You may wish for a traditional funeral, an upbeat celebration of life or no ceremony at all.

You may wonder if your loved ones have to follow your wishes:

• If you have a pre-need funeral contract, your loved ones must follow through with your wishes as you’ve already paid for the arrangements.

• If you put your wishes in your Will, your personal representative must follow your instructions. However, sometimes they do not read your Will right away, so it’s a good idea to talk with your personal representative about your wishes as soon as you make your Will.

• If you put your wishes in some other document or tell them to your loved ones, they have no legal obligation to follow them. You can only hope they do out of respect for you.

Source: Estate Planning 101, page 40

If you wish to pre-plan your funeral celebration ONLY, please consult the Services page for more details.