Funeral Program Format

Funeral Programs and memorial booklets are given out at funeral ceremonies, celebration of life services, homegoing and memorial services to give information and order of events for the service as well as give personal information about the deceased. These handouts come in a wide variety of paper sizes, funeral program covers, colors and layouts. Depending on the type of service you are having, and the amount of information you want to include, you can choose form many different formats. This article lists several formats that you can use to make your funeral program or booklet.

Format of Funeral Program Information

Funeral Programs and booklet can contain a variety of information. You can include a lot or a little information. Here is a list of information that can be put in a program.

Photo on the Cover of the program or booklet of the deceased
Title of The Funeral Program such as "In Memorium" or "Celebration of Life"
Birth Date and Death Date. You can also refer to this as "Sunrise" and "Sunset"
Funeral Information with date, time, location address, name of church and Officiant
List of Events of the funeral or memorials. This is also called the funeral program order of service. This also lists the people who are participating in the service.
An Obituary for a funeral program, biography or life sketch or tribute
Songs and scripture readings
Poems and Memorial quotes
Family pictures and photo collages
Funeral clipart and images
Special Notes about the deceased
Burial or Information
Details about Reception
Thank You Notes and Acknowledgements to friends and family

Format and Layout of Funeral Programs

Once you've decided what information you want to include, you have to figure how you will lay the information out, and what paper size you will use. There are many different funeral program formats and layouts you can choose from. Here are a few:

Single Fold Letter Sized Funeral Program Format -- On 8 1/2"x11" paper and folds down the middle. You can also use legal and tabloid size paper. This layout has enough room for service details, an obituary or life tribute and thank you notes and acknowledgements.
Trifold Funeral Program Format - This format can be on letter or legal size paper and has room for the basic information in a program. It also has room for additional family photos.
Graduated Fold or Step Fold Programs -- These programs are similar to single fold programs, but they have a tab down the right hand side of the program for an extra design element.
Bottom Graduated of Step Fold Programs -- Has a staggered fold, but the folds occur horizontally.
Gatefold Funeral Program Format -- This Program has two flaps that fold inward. This format can be used on letter or legal sized paper. Can be used if you want more of a design element to your program.
Small Funeral Cards -- Single fold cards or programs that are half the size of the letter sized program

For more information, see our article on funeral program layouts.