What Sympathy Flowers To Send
Sympathy flowers arrangements, sympathy plant gifts, and flowers for funeral service delivery, when do you send which one and where does it go? Losing a dear friend, beloved family member, or lifelong companion is hard enough. Use this helpful sympathy bouquet and flowers arrangement information to guide you to the right sympathy flower choice for you and your needs.
What kind of flowers to send for sympathy occasions<
There are four main occasions or events that will occur once someone has passed where you can send sympathy flowers, plants, gifts, and arrangements. If you find yourself wondering when to send flowers after a death, this should help. The typical events are labeled here in the order that they occur, alongside the type and what sympathy gift you should send.
Sending sympathy flowers after announcement
The first sympathy flowers delivered should come after the initial formal announcement of death. If you're wondering what that means, we're referring to the formal announcement which can come from a family member, the local newspaper, or by word of mouth from close friends and family. In other words it should be from someone who is legitimately close to the deceased. Why would you wait for this formal announcement to send sympathy flowers to the family? There are a few good reasons, which when you put yourself in their place, make logical sense. When we lose a loved one it puts us into a shock, especially if it's an unexpected and unanticipated death. Imagine if this were you trying to cope with loss. Would you want to go to your door every hour within the first 24 hour period to accept gifts as a constant reminder of just what happened in your life? No, you would need that time to just accept what's happened. This would be hard emotionally on anyone. That is why you need to wait for some kind of formal announcement or update from a person close to the family before you sending sympathy gifts. Once it's been announced you should send the family something. For the initial announcement it is appropriate to send flowers in sympathy flower bouquets to the family. Do not send standing sympathy arrangements, wreaths, or plants during this time. These sympathy gifts are better suited for the following events. Keep reading.
Sending flowers to a funeral visitation
This is the time to send elaborate sympathy flower arrangements, standing sprays, wreaths, crosses, etc. The funeral visitation is a visitation for pretty much anyone, unless the particular family in question has some unique specifications(which is not usually the case). It's called a visitation because this is a time for everyone whether related, close, or even distant to come pay their respects to the deceased and to visit with them before the funeral. It's a time in which the family allows everyone to say their goodbyes and farewells. It's common at the visitation for the family to even meet new acquaintances, or work colleagues, and sometimes even past classmates that they didn't know the deceased had. This is partly why the visitation is so important. It allows everyone who cared about the deceased to say farewell and to get closure. Maybe a dearly beloved who has passed didn't know someone well, but that doesn't mean that they didn't somehow shape their lives. It's not uncommon especially at a financial donors funeral to see people you've never met before. Maybe the deceased is the reason they were successful, unless you have the visitation, you may never know. This is definitely a time to send higher end sympathy flowers. Your delivered sympathy arrangement is a visual symbol of respect for not just the family but for yourself too. Everyone's visitation flowers delivery will be different depending on how well they knew the deceased and how close they were. Only you will know what's best for you.
Sending flowers to a funeral
Depending on the arrangements you may have the funeral on the same day after the visitation, but typically they're on different days. Also unlike the visitation, the funeral itself may not be open to everyone. This will depend on the family and their preferences, or whether or not the deceased specified what they wanted themselves. Usually the family and those very close to the deceased are the funeral attendees. Similar to the visitation flowers, you can send sympathy flowers of various kinds to a funeral. Types of flowers best reserved for the family to get would be casket blankets, flower rosary arrangements, casket sprays, and casket wreaths. There's only one spot for these kinds of funeral flowers and the immediate family members will probably have already ordered these and picked something both beautiful and meaningful to them. If you really want to order casket flowers for the family then you should call ahead of time to ask them what they want and if you can. If you can do this it may actually help to relieve some of the financial burden of the funeral for the family, so don't be shy in offering help. Just choose your words carefully and we recommend contacting someone close to the deceased who is still capable. For example, a wife whose just lost her husband is not the right person to contact, but an aunt or sister close to her would be. All the other types of funeral flower bouquets are fine to send here from standing sprays, small, medium, to large sympathy bouquets and standing wreaths.
Sending sympathy gifts after a funeral
Yes, you should send sympathy gift baskets, flowers, plants, and other deliverables after the funeral is over. Many people question or wonder if it's appropriate to keep sending sympathy flowers to families once the funeral has passed. You should send post funeral gifts, but they don't necessarily have to be flower arrangements by this time. This is an excellent time to send sympathy food gifts, sympathy gift baskets, and plants. In fact we recommend these things more so than flowers during this later stage, because it's a nice separation for the family to have something different. If you were late in finding out about the funeral or visitation and haven't yet sent flowers, please see below for sending late sympathy flowers.
After experiencing a loss, the family may need help with meals, shopping, and errands. Obviously not everyone can help with these things depending on where you live, your lifestyle pace, and sometimes even because you're caring for your own family and children. There are still things that you can do for them. If you live nearby and are able to, it's always nice to cook something for the family. For those of you not located nearby, sympathy gift baskets sent packed with healthy foods, fruits, and snacks are a great option. Unless someone is bringing them meals every day, the likelihood that they're getting all the nutrients that they should is slim to none. Different people react differently to loss, but it's very common that many will either stop eating healthy meals all-together, and in some cases just eat very little, or eat everything that they can. Our first choice when sending sympathy delivery baskets are the larger fruit varieties, followed by snack gift baskets, and chocolate gift baskets. Why would we tell you to send sympathy chocolate gift baskets? If the point is to get them to eat something, and they won't, or just don't want to eat healthy foods right now, then at least send them something that they will eat. It's not the ideal form of nourishment, but at least it is nourishment of some kind.
We're talking a lot about the sympathy gifts to send someone after a funeral. There's a reason for that. Up until now the deceased's family has been in a whirl from shock, to disbelief, to acceptance, and it all becomes a blur at some point. It's after the funeral when they aren't making funeral arrangements, paying bills, or speaking to everyone that the full meaning of what's just happened sits in. That is why sending sympathy gifts during this time is perhaps the most important time to do it. Sympathy flowers are beautiful gifts, but honestly that family would benefit much more during this time from food that they can eat, loving cards from you, and sympathy plants that will bring fresh air and living breath into their life. Send a sympathy plant to them so that they have something that isn't dying around them, that can distract them while they care for it, and circulates and purifies the air around them. They need that right now.
Important To Note:
Don't be offended if the family doesn't send you a thank you card. This is not a wedding or a bridal shower. Just because they may forget to send you a thank you note, doesn't mean they didn't notice that you sent them sympathy gifts. Many people when questioned long after a funeral will remember exactly who sent sympathy gifts to them or their family, even if they didn't say thank you. If you cared for them in their time of need, the memory is there permanently. Do not forget that only the gift given without expecting anything in return, is the only true gift ever given.
What kind of flowers are appropriate for a death?
If you want to send traditional death flowers you should look at sending sympathy orchids, white lilies, and white roses. A white orchid delivery is supposed to resemble and symbolize the deceased. The potted orchid plant symbolizes their soul and the passing of their life. If you prefer to send death flowers, look for sympathy white lily arrangements, or white rose standing sprays which are a symbolic flower arrangement for funerals. These sympathy white flowers represent purity and the never-ending and revolving wheel of life. These white flower funeral arrangements show the continuous life of the deceased in a symbolic feature that says they haven't left us, but are simply moving about life's cycle into a different course. Though to some it may seem a bit metaphorical, for others it's a very comforting thought. All of these flowers that represent death are available in sympathy bouquet, sprays, wreath, and cross funeral arrangements.
How much are flowers for a funeral?
How much you spend on funeral flowers has a lot to do with whether you're an immediate family member, attending a funeral as a friend of the family, and also how well you know the deceased. If you're an immediate family member, it's good to plan on roughly $1000 for flowers. This includes at least one standing spray for the visitation, casket flowers for the funeral, and one other miscellaneous item for the door, next to the coffin, or as a tribute to the deceased. If you're attending as a close friend or close family member and knew the deceased very well you should plan on about $100 - $300 depending on what your financial situation is. No doubt if you're purchasing this kind of sympathy flower arrangement and are that close to the family, they'll already be aware if money is tight for you. If you're a distant friend, a fellow colleague, or acquaintance, it's fine to send cheaper sympathy flowers from $20 - $50. The exception to this is if your a boss/ceo of the company of the deceased, in which case the family will be expecting you to send a nicer sympathy bouquet or flower arrangement of at least $200 - $250.
Sympathy flowers cheap varieties
You know the saying people aren't made of money? If money is tight for you, that doesn't mean you should be denied the chance to pay your respects to a loved one or not be able to take part in their visitation or funeral. If you really want to send a sympathy gift, you should be able to. Here are three inexpensive sympathy gifts that you can send someone to pay your respects without putting financial strain on yourself. Don't worry, the family is not going to judge you for sending cheap sympathy flowers. These cheap sympathy arrangements are still freshly cut and contain the same high quality sympathy blooms that the expensive funeral arrangements use. The family will greatly appreciate your gesture, not place a price tag on it.
Sending late sympathy flowers
If you're sending late sympathy gifts or sending sympathy gifts after the funeral we would typically recommend food items and plants. However if you are sending sympathy gifts after the funeral and have yet to send anything, etiquette almost demands that you send flowers instead. Maybe you were out of town already, didn't know until it was too late, whatever you reason is, you do need to send flowers now if you're close to the deceased at all. Delivered sympathy flowers will always be the first and foremost symbolic gesture to show respect and to honor those that have passed. It's even socially acceptable to send sympathy bouquet arrangements and sympathy baskets together at the same time if you wish, but you must send flowers. Even if you're sending sympathy flowers late the family will still appreciate it, and it's part of the healing process for them. Sometimes people send sympathy flowers months after the fact when they're just gearing about the death. This is very comforting for the family actually. Sometimes there's come a point of withdrawal once everything is over in which they feel that people have forgotten about their loved one while they so obviously have not. A delayed flower order is a reassurance that this is not true and sometimes means more to them then the flowers delivered to the funeral. If you're late in sending someone sympathy flowers, do not hesitate in doing so. You are making an admirable choice to send sympathy gifts late and it may do the family more good than even the most elaborately decorated standing sprays they had at the visitation.
Condolence flowers message suggestions:
Your sympathy flowers message card is your chance to express something about the person lost, or to share a memory about them, or even to let someone just know that they have your support. These are some ideas of what to say and also suggestions of phrases that people may like and find comforting.
Graceful Calla Lily Bouquet
Red Rose Altar Arrangement
Bountiful Rose Basket
Garden Wreath Sympathy Flowers
