--- title: "Planning a celebration of life | Best Ceremonies" description: "Planning a celebration of life: building a running order, choosing speakers, and why holding it weeks later is normal. $750, no notice period." url: "https://bestceremonies.com.au/celebration-of-life/" --- Guide # Planning a celebration of life A celebration of life ceremony is a funeral service built around stories rather than a formal order of service, and you can hold it whenever suits the family, whether that is the same week or months later after a cremation. With Felicity Best it costs $750, including the family meeting, the writing and the PA, and there is no notice period of any kind. ## How the running order is built A traditional funeral has a shape people recognise, and that recognition does a lot of work on a day when nobody has the capacity to follow something unfamiliar. A celebration of life gives that shape up deliberately, so something has to replace it: a written running order saying who speaks, in what order, for how long, and what happens between them. I carry the main eulogy and hold the thread, introducing each speaker with the context the room needs and stepping in when somebody cannot finish, which happens often enough that I plan for it rather than improvise. An open microphone sounds generous and is the single most common thing families regret. A short invited list with two or three names held in reserve does the same job without the risk. ## Holding it later Because there is no legal deadline, a celebration of life can wait. Families commonly hold a small committal within the week and the larger gathering a month or two afterwards, once people can travel, the cremation has happened and the arrangements are not being made in the first shocked days. Anniversaries work too, and so does a birthday. Later gatherings are usually somewhere with a kitchen rather than in a chapel, so a hall, a club, a backyard or a beach. There is often no funeral director involved by then, so I take the run sheet and the sound myself. An ashes committal can be built into the same day, which many families find is the right place for it. Questions ## Questions people ask What is a celebration of life? A service that remembers a person through the things they did and the way they did them, rather than through a set liturgy. It usually has more speakers, more music and more room for laughing than a traditional funeral, and it is often held later, after a cremation or when family can travel. How long after a death can it be held? There is no limit. Some families hold a small committal within the week and a celebration of life a month or two later, so people can travel and so the planning is not done in the first shocked days. Others do it on an anniversary. Neither is unusual. Who speaks at a celebration of life? Whoever wants to, within a running order agreed in advance. I write and deliver the main eulogy, hold the thread between speakers, and step in if someone cannot finish, which happens often enough that I plan for it rather than improvise. Does it cost more than a funeral? No. Both are $750, including the family meeting, the eulogy and full script, liaison with your funeral director where there is one, and the PA. A graveside or ashes committal on its own is $450, which is what families choose when the larger gathering is happening separately. Get in touch ## Send a message For after hours, or if a call is hard right now. Say who the service is for, roughly when it might be, and how to reach you, and I will call you back. [0400 110 959](tel:+61400110959) [felicity@bestceremonies.com.au](mailto:felicity@bestceremonies.com.au) Most days, 9am to 7pm. --- This is the Markdown copy of https://bestceremonies.com.au/celebration-of-life/. Every page on this site has one at its path with .md in place of the closing slash; the index is https://bestceremonies.com.au/llms.txt and the guide for agents is https://bestceremonies.com.au/agents/.