While cremation is gaining in popularity, some people still desire a traditional funeral service. Some of your friends and family may wish the closure that a visitation, funeral, and burial provide. Thankfully, this still remains possible while undergoing cremation. If you're making arrangements for a loved one, here's how you can choose cremation while also receiving the most traditional memorial possible.

Hold a Cremation Funeral Service

Many people believe that cremation makes a traditional funeral impossible. However, this is not true. A cremation funeral service works in exactly the same way as the funeral service for a traditional bodily burial. After someone passes away, they are taken to the funeral home and embalmed. Visitation services with an open-casket viewing are held followed by a traditional funeral. If you and your family wish to have traditional memorial services, a cremation funeral is the best choice.

The differences between a cremation funeral service and a funeral service for a bodily burial begin after the funeral has ended. There's no procession to the cemetery or internment service. Instead, the deceased is taken to a crematorium.

Inter the Cremated Remains in a Columbarium While Holding an Internment Service

Instead of a traditional burial service, you can hold an internment service. The cremated remains will be interred in a columbarium niche, which includes small boxes set into a large slab of marble or other permanent structure. The niches are designed to hold multiple sets of cremated remains.

An internment service is held when an urn containing the cremated remains is placed into the columbarium niche and sealed. Many people find an internment service comforting as it provides the same sense of closure as a traditional burial service. Internment in a columbarium also gives you and your family a permanent place to visit the remains of your loved one in a similar way to burial in a cemetery.

Work With Your Funeral Home to Process the Cremated Remains Quickly

It's best to hold the internment service a few days after the cremation funeral service. In this way, it's more similar to a traditional burial service held at a cemetery, which occurs immediately after the funeral. Unfortunately, it's impossible to hold one immediately afterward with cremation simply due to the way the crematoriums work.

You can compensate for this by working with your funeral home to find a crematorium that can cremate and return the remains quickly. Additionally, it's likely that many friends and family of the deceased will be traveling to the funeral. Holding the internment service as quickly as possible after the cremation funeral service will make forming travel plans easier.

Bridging the gap between traditional funeral services and cremation requires some planning and forethought, but it's possible when you work with the right funeral home. Contact a local funeral home that offers cremation funeral services and will help you find a columbarium that offers internment services for your loved one.