What goes on each page, in what order, how many to print, and the two mistakes you cannot undo once it is printed.
← eternallyloved.co.ukTwo jobs. It tells people in the room what is happening next, so nobody is caught not knowing whether to stand. And it is the thing they take home and keep, which is why the photograph on the front matters more than any other decision here.
The running order, in the order it will happen, so somebody can follow along:
Not every service has all of these, and a humanist or civil service may have none of the religious ones. Print what is happening, not what you think ought to be there.
1. Print more than you think. Count the expected mourners, add a third, and round up. They run out at exactly the wrong moment, and afterwards people write and ask for one because they could not come. Fifty extra copies add far less to the bill than a second print run, and the difference is a few tens of pounds rather than a few hundred.
2. Have somebody else check the names. Not you: you have read it eleven times and you will see what you meant. A misspelled grandchild in print is remembered for a very long time, and it is the single commonest fault. Check spellings, check the dates, check the postcode of the wake.
Four pages, folded from one sheet, covers most services comfortably. Eight pages if you are printing hymns in full, or several readings, or more photographs. A single card works well for a short service or a graveside, and for the wake table.
If you find yourself shrinking the type to fit, go up a size instead. A great many of the people holding it will be reading it without their glasses.
Traditional hymns are almost always out of copyright and safe to print in full, but a modern one may not be: hymns are still being written, and a hymn from the last few decades is as much in copyright as a pop song. If it is not one your grandmother would have known, check before printing it in full. Most modern poems and all song lyrics are in copyright, and reprinting them properly needs permission from the publisher. Naming the piece and its author is always safe, and for a song is usually better anyway, since lyrics read flat on a page.
Most families use their funeral director's printer, who does this every week and will know the deadlines. A high-street or online printer works too. Whoever it is, they want a print-ready PDF, and they will want it earlier than you expect: ask for the cut-off date on the day you start, not the day you finish.
One thing that catches people out: online printers list "orders of service" as eight-page booklets and often will not do a single folded sheet under that name. If you want the four-page one, ask for a folded A5 leaflet instead.
It comes with every memorial page at no extra cost, and it is optional. You either set the running order and pick a ready-made layout, or build your own piece by piece and choose the length. It is built from the same words as the page, so a change to the running order carries through to both, and if what you have added will not fit it tells you which parts do not rather than dropping anything.
Building the order of service is the step-by-step; the order of service shows what it looks like.
More guides: writing a eulogy · readings and music · questions families ask