I made about 100 bookmarks for my husband's memorial service. I did a photo on the front with dates, and on the back was a nice saying and others had the family names that were left behind. It's not really hard to do. I think a print shop will charge more then it will cost you. It will be about $1.00 each at the least.

I think they are very nice, and I really appreciate the pictures and any life stories on them. I keep them all.

I don't see any point to the lyrics of the songs though, unless the family has asked for that.

It would be far cheaper to have a copy shop do them, than to print them on your home printer - for that quantity anyway.

I personally don't know the costs here - the funeral home always does them and they look very nice - but not over the top.

When we had Mom's "Celebration of Life", I made leaflets on my computer and printed them on parchment paper. It was very easy to do. The front had her picture, with birth and death dates; the inside had the story of her life; the back had details about the service and a note of gratitude from the family.

I also made bookmarks out of colored card stock paper--four to a page (landscape). They had her picture and a poem.

It doesn't take a fancy printer to make these. It is worthwhile, however, to get the parchment paper--it is so much nicer than regular bond. I would think it would cost a lot more to have them printed.

If it would help you, I would be happy to e-mail you a copy of my mother's leaflet so you can see how it was done. You can e-mail me through "My Page" here at KT.

I think it's wonderful to have a friend or family member do it. My sister and I made the folder for our mother.

I think a leaflet done by family, a friend or community member is more meaningful than something done by a local printer who didn't even know the person.

You are very kind to put so much effort into the leaflet, and I'm sure it will be just perfect and much appreciated by the family who lost a loved one.

Glad to hear that the homemade ones are meeting with approval!

Wanda, thanks much for the offer, but this had to be done in a hurry as the funeral is Saturday morning. I used Microsoft Publishing, and it's going to the print shop because 150 copies are needed, and my old HP doesn't do that great a job any longer. Time for a new one.

Iowagirl, I was working with the deceased woman's husband and our pastor. Pastor wanted the lyrics to the hymns on it so that people can see them easily to sing during the funeral.

You know, it's nice that most of us have so many recourses these days on so many things - folks who make their own cards, etc. instead of having to choose between already made-up, generic things.

Lindie, glad to hear it's going well. Just a thought--have someone else look it over before printing. I'm sure you have looked at for hours on end, and sometimes "new" eyes can pick up a small error or something you want to change.

For my mom's memorial service I used a print shop because I had a color photo of her that I wanted on the front page. I had typed everything else. Kinko's did a beautiful job and it was reasonable, partly because I only needed 50 copies. I was so proud of how they turned out. I mailed copies to family members who could not attend.

Hey, sorry to bring this up again but wanted to reply to Socks12345. No kidding about the editing! Doesn't it seem like sometimes we see what we EXPECT to see instead of what is actually there? lol I must have read that thing over, word for word, 15 times, transferred it to CD and gave it to the guy late this morning. It was only after it was gone that I realized I'd left off the title of the poem!! Rats! He didn't notice, either, when I showed him the printed sample.

linda in iowa and others, so glad that your projects turned out well!

Publisher is a great program for setting up a simple brochure like this. My aunt's funeral had brochures done by a cousin and her kids (I think). They weren't the best because the ones doing it didn't really care that much. I've seen some done by relatives/friends that looked great. In fact a couple looked much better than the "professionally" printed ones at other funerals. Much depends on how much you've worked with it, the quality of the pictures (when used) and how much you care. But as I said, having Publisher is a big help.

And frankly, even the ones for my aunt? Hey, no big deal. One event for one day and most of them wind up in the trash anyway. And I know my aunt wouldn't have cared, she'd have been quite flattered that people wanted to do this for her anyway.

Glad to hear you're having them printed. I was going to suggest that. A good clean copier will do a nice job and you can even do color copies on it that look great.

Too late now I imagine but another option would have been to print the lyrics on a separate 1/2 sheet (2-up for printing) and insert it if there were other things you wanted on the flyer. But I'm sure it's going to look great.

Condolences on the loss and hope all goes well.

I used Publisher to make the memorial leaflets for my twin sister's funeral. Had a beautiful pink rose (her favorite) on the front with part of a poem...."For nothing loved is ever lost, and she was loved so much."

Inside I listed her birthdate, death date and survivors.
It meant a lot to me to do this for her.

The memorial leaflets we had this year for my Mother was provided by the funeral home. The ones we had at the funeral at the church was printed by our church at no charge. It also included a photograph of the river behind her home. Both were very nice. The funeral home's came with the package deal as did the thank you notes.

Sue