Preplanning
Things to think about
The preplanning process can begin with the cemetery or a funeral home. But before making a visit to either, think about the following:
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Gather information for the obituary
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Choose a charity for people to direct donations
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Make note of the type of service you want: church, funeral home, graveside
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Choose traditional burial or cremation (options)
Choose a place
Arrange a visit to Greenwood Cemetery. Once there, you may decide to:
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Purchase a lot or niche or;
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Choose to be scattered in our scattering garden (more on the scattering garden)
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Decide how many burial spaces to buy (Note: One grave holds: one coffin, or; one coffin and one cremation vault, or; two cremation vaults. One niche holds two appropriately sized urns)
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Pre-pay for burial costs and for the final inscription on your headstone
Service
These choices can be recorded at the funeral home and some can be prepaid
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Casket or cremation container
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Flower arrangements
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Clothes to be dressed in
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Choose family or friends to give a reading or eulogy
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Select music, poems, program design
Headstone
With different styles, colors, finishes and lettering, there is no limit to what can be created for a personalized marker for you, you and your spouse or for a family lot.
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Choose a monument company that will make this sometimes-overwhelming process a little easier
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Make sure the selection works with the lot you purchased.
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The cemetery will need to install a foundation for the monument or marker.
Recent Loss
Funeral arrangements
A place
The first call should be made to the funeral home. Decisions will be made there that will affect day and time of funeral and interment at the cemetery.
Casketed burial: If a lot has already been purchased, and the grave designated for the deceased, the funeral director will make arrangements with us for interment. Before a burial is made, we must have information on which grave is to be opened.
Cremation burial: If a lot has already been purchased, a funeral director or family member may make arrangements with us. Before a cremation burial can be made, we need
1) grave designation/burial rights verified
2) information on type of cremation vault purchased (required: (more info on cremation burial))
3) date and time scheduled
4) payment two business days prior to scheduled interment
5) burial transit permit if you have it
If a lot or columbarium niche (more info on niches) has not yet been purchased, the family must visit the cemetery to choose a lot or niche. This is true for casketed and cremation burials. Call us at (231)347-6531 to make an appointment for your tour of options. You may also choose to scatter your loved one's ashes in our scattering garden overlooking the bay (more info on the scattering garden).
If it is winter: You may choose whether to make burial at Greenwood or you may arrange with the funeral home for storage until spring. Note: Greenwood Cemetery has the ability to perform burials year-round, but, if necessary, there is a surcharge for graveside services to pay for snow/ice removal.
Headstone
If a headstone or niche or inscription tablet at the scattering gardens had already been purchased and installed, the cemetery will take care of the inscription of the death date only if this service had been prepaid. Otherwise, the final date cut must be ordered through a monument company.
If a headstone has not been purchased,
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Find a monument company
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You or the funeral director will contact us to ensure your selection works with the lot and communicate the foundation size
Cremation Options
We offer a few different options for future generations to still have "a place to go" when a loved one has been cremated
Scattering Garden
There is no charge to scatter ashes in the scattering garden on the bluff overlooking Little Traverse Bay (once we are notified of time and date). You may choose to pay for an inscription on a Scattering Garden tablet. (See inscription info below)
Columbarium Niche
Two urns fit into each niche (if appropriately sized). We have columbariums in different areas of the cemetery from which to choose. Price of niche includes inscription.
Personal Columbarium
This option involves a purchase of a cemetery lot and a separate purchase of a monument designed to hold cremains.
Burial
Many choose a traditional lot with headstone, but with the cremation urn buried inside a vault rather than a casket. The vault containing the urn must be of a certain material, must be greater than 100 sq. in., and is required.