Our Celebrant Services

Our Celebrant Services

A Funeral Celebrant is a person who provides a memorial service or funeral that is personalized and focuses on the personality and lifestyle of the deceased. We have one of the only Certified Funeral Celebrant programs in the Kansas City area. Our Celebrants will help you create a service that reflects your wishes, beliefs, values, and cultural background. It can be as non-religious, spiritual, or religious as you want it to be.

After choosing to use one of our Certified Celebrants, he or she will meet with you and your family to find the things that are most important to you. The incorporation of stories, pictures, songs, readings, poems, and memories about your loved one will help the Celebrant to provide a meaningful ceremony so that you can concentrate on your family and honoring the life of the special person you cherish. 


Do you want to write the Eulogy? We will help you do it...


Do you want a special song? We will let you play it..


Do you want to share a story about your loved one? We will provide a time in the service for that...

A new way to celebrate the end of a life.  Meaningfully. personally

Our Certified Celebrants will work with you to design the perfect service, because at Speaks...... it's your life, your style, and your way.

Memorial Service Ideas

Our experience has shown us that many of today's families want more than a traditional funeral. This can be done by bringing more of the personality and lifestyle of the deceased into the arrangements. By displaying photographs or staging the event around a favorite pastime, a memorial service can become more personal and meaningful.

If a personalized memorial service suits the needs of your family, we suggest you consider the following questions:

  • What did your loved one like to do?
  • What was he or she like as an individual?
  • What was their profession and how did that shape their life?
  • Was your loved one spiritual?
  • Was he or she proud of their cultural or ethnic heritage? 

Why a Memorial Service?

Rather than opting to do things "the same old way", many families today want to celebrate the life of a loved one. Many funeral service professionals see this change as one of the many contributions to social change made by "Baby Boomers". The National Funeral Directors Association notes, "As baby boomers age and find themselves having to plan funerals for loved ones and themselves, they are making funeral choices based on values that are different than previous generations. Baby boomers see funerals as a valuable part of the grieving process and are seeking ways to make them meaningful." If you too desire to make the funeral for a loved one more engaging and personally meaningful, a celebration-of-life may be the perfect concept to build on.

Memorial Service Ideas

Rather than opting to do things "the same old way", many families today want to celebrate the life of a loved one. Many funeral service professionals see this change as one of the many contributions to social change made by "Baby Boomers". The National Funeral Directors Association notes, "As baby boomers age and find themselves having to plan funerals for loved ones and themselves, they are making funeral choices based on values that are different than previous generations. Baby boomers see funerals as a valuable part of the grieving process and are seeking ways to make them meaningful." If you too desire to make the funeral for a loved one more engaging and personally meaningful, a celebration-of-life may be the perfect concept to build on.

How Does a Celebration of Life Differ from a Traditional Funeral?

As mentioned in the page Traditional Funeral Services, there are four basic components which make up the conventional approach to funerals:

  1. A Visitation
  2. The Funeral Service
  3. A Committal Service
  4. The Funeral Reception

A traditional funeral then is a series of events; it's a ritualized process where the deceased, and the attendees, pass from one social status to another; a process where the torn fabric of a family and community is repaired. According to the online article "Six Characteristics of Helpful Ceremonies", by William Hoy, Director of Grief Connect, this is done by including:

  • Symbols of shared significance intended to communicate beyond words
  • Ritual actions shared by a group of individuals
  • Gathered people providing comfort to one another
  • Connection to heritage through recognized readings
  • Increased physical contact between attendees provide comfort
  • Witnessing the transition of the body through burial or cremation

In knowing these characteristics, you can design a Celebration of Life as unique as the life of your loved. Learn how to create a Celebration of Life.