Planning Guide 9 min read
Pre-Need Headstone Planning
Considering a pre-need headstone? Here's what it actually involves — cost, storage, design, and what to lock in now versus later.
Marwaa Insights · 17 guides
Planning Guides
Help with the decisions around a memorial: how long it takes, whether there is a deadline, planning ahead, marking an unmarked grave, finding where someone is buried, family disagreements and remembering someone when there is no grave.
Planning Guide 9 min read
How to Choose a Funeral Home in Canada
Choosing a funeral home in Canada? Here's what to ask, what it costs, and how to compare providers with confidence.
Planning Guide 4 min read
How Long After Burial Can You Install a Headstone?
How long cemeteries make families wait to install a headstone, why grave settling matters, and what temporary markers are allowed in the meantime.
Planning Guide 6 min read
Ordering a Headstone
What happens between choosing a headstone and seeing it installed — design, cemetery approval, proof, production, shipping and setting — with realistic timings.
Planning Guide 5 min read
Who Pays for a Headstone? Families, Estates and Benefits Explained
Who usually pays for a headstone — the estate, family members, insurance or government benefits — and how families share the cost and decisions.
Planning Guide 5 min read
Headstone Proof Approval Checklist
A line-by-line checklist for approving a headstone proof — spelling, dates, layout, sizes, granite, finish and symbols — so nothing is engraved wrong.
Planning Guide 5 min read
Headstone Dedication Ceremony
How families plan a headstone dedication or unveiling — timing, who to invite, readings, covering the stone, and adapting it to different faiths.
Planning Guide 4 min read
Temporary Grave Markers
Temporary grave markers explained — what funeral homes provide, how long they stay, personalised options and cemetery rules while you wait for a headstone.
Planning Guide 5 min read
A Memorial Without a Burial
How families create a memorial when there is no grave — lost at sea, ashes scattered, remains not recovered or buried far away — and where such a stone can be placed.
Planning Guide 5 min read
How to Find Where Someone Is Buried
Practical ways to find a grave — family papers, funeral homes, cemetery offices, online grave databases, obituaries and veterans' grave locators.
Planning Guide 6 min read
Private Family Mausoleums
An introduction to private family mausoleums — walk-in and garden (sarcophagus) styles, granite choices, cemetery lots, permits and planning timelines.
Planning Guide 5 min read
How Long Does It Take to Get a Headstone After Ordering?
A realistic timeline from order to installation — design and proof, cemetery approval, manufacturing, shipping and the installation season — and what speeds it up.
Planning Guide 4 min read
Is There a Deadline to Put Up a Headstone?
Whether there is a time limit for placing a headstone after a burial, what cemeteries expect, temporary markers, and good reasons to wait — or not to.
Planning Guide 4 min read
Do You Have to Have a Headstone on a Grave?
Whether a headstone is required, what cemeteries may insist on, low-cost alternatives like flat markers and what happens to a grave left unmarked.
Planning Guide 5 min read
How to Put a Headstone on an Unmarked Grave
How families mark a relative's unmarked grave years later — confirming the location, getting permission from the rights holder, choosing wording and veterans' markers.
Planning Guide 5 min read
When Family Members Disagree About a Headstone
Practical ways to handle family disagreements over headstone wording, design or cost — who has the final say, compromises that work and when to pause.
Planning Guide 4 min read
Headstones for Someone Married Twice
Options when someone was married more than once — which spouse they are buried with, names on more than one stone, and wording that respects everyone.