When you are planning out final services for a loved one at funeral homes in Essex, MD, there are a lot of large and small details that have to come together. You want the services to be personalized and customized and that might mean adding certain details to make the day stand out among other final services that are similar in nature. One way to differentiate is to pick photos for display at the event. Your loved one was unlike anyone else and their smiling face can add a lot to the day. Here are a few tips for choosing the photo you put on display at the front of the room, perhaps next to the casket.

Your loved one might have had a lot of styles over the years, and you can feature some of those in other parts of the room, but you might want to choose a recent photo for the front of the room so family members and friends who knew them well will recognize them at that stage of their life. You don’t want to choose a photo of them when they don’t look their best, like if they were sick at the end, for example, but something recent that makes them look nice at the same time.

Since funeral home services are generally formal, you might want a shot that has more of a formal feel to it instead of something more candid and casual. You might use the picture the church took of them for the directory they put together. Or maybe you will use the picture your daughter took in black and white for photography class (and got an A on). Something on the formal side might feel more fitting for this type of event.

You will want to focus the picture on just them and not have a family shot on display at the front of the room because the service revolves around them. You want everyone there to know exactly who you are there to honor. Some people may come in support of someone who knew them and having a group shot can be confusing.

You aren’t going to want to print the shot out on your printer at home, but rather get a professional print that you can have enlarged, perhaps, so it looks nice, neat, and orderly. You might keep this in a special place in your house as a memorial after the event.

Once you have the photo you want for display in the front of the room, perhaps next to your loved one’s casket, you can place candids of them with family on the memorial table in the back of the room. This can show them in many stages in life, doing some of the things they loved most. It can be hard to narrow the pictures down for funeral homes in Essex, MD.