An order of service is essentially a carefully prepared pamphlet handed out or left on a chair at a service. It details what’s going to happen throughout the course of the ceremony: when the music will play, the order of the readings, and so on.

This is presented in order so that those attending know what’s happening and when.

It may also list who is performing what functions in the service. It may list the celebrant, the reading of eulogies by individuals and so on.

In some instances, the venue of the service may require one. Enabling everyone involved to know what you want to do, and when. That’s because somebody will need to play music at certain points, perform readings, and so on. If forms as an

important administrative tool.

An order of service booklet is a very special document, it is important to work with celebrant celebrant to coordinate your loved ones funeral and its content in the timeframes requested creating a well considered order of service.

This ensures the service will run smoothly for all parties and that those attending can participate and pay their due respects well.

Most importantly it must not be forgotten that an order of service is the last opportunity to carefully prepare, celebrate and commemorate someones life as they are laid to rest.

It is an established tradition and a small way of thanking your loved one, to personalise the booklet with photographs and/or key timelines that were special to the individual.

At the end of the order of service a message such as ‘Thank you to all for coming today, and to everybody who played a part in the passed ones life.’ It is another direct way of thanking your guests and including those that couldn’t attend.

It is at this section you too can add memories, treasured moments or images, as many as you like including the details and location of the wake if you have chosen to have one.

There may be a specific charity that was important to the deceased or family, you may wish to take this into consideration when choosing and indicating this is in your final pages of thank you.

Most services have music. The music in a service might only play when entering and exiting the venue. Yet many services have hymns to sing along to at a point or points in the ceremony; others have readings.

If you are planning on doing so, it’s good form to print the words of the tune/reading in the order of service. If you do, it means that:

• Guests can read or sing along together, even if they don’t know the words. This stops anybody from feeling awkward if they don’t know the tune.
• With everybody singing or reading along, you create an atmosphere. Taking part in a communal song or reading is a form of respect in a service for a loved one.