21 Celebration of Life Ideas to Remember Them Well

Planning a celebration of life is not an easy task. You’re navigating grief along with playing host as you think about what to do with a group of people that want to gather to honor your loved one.

An intentional gathering can help friends and family find peace, even if it’s just for the day. These celebration of life ideas will help you put together a thoughtful and compassionate event to honor a life well-lived.

21 Celebration of Life Ideas for a Thoughtful Gathering

From memorial objects to menu suggestions to activities, these ideas will help you pay tribute to your special person.

1. Make Their Favorite Food or Drinks

Design: Shari Margolin Design | Simple Remembrance Invitation

Provide all of their favorite dishes for the end-of-life celebration. Maybe she was Italian, so you serve cannoli, arancini, baked rigatoni, and Italian wines. Maybe he was crazy about dumplings, and you want a few guests to bring different varieties in his honor for a dumpling potluck. Or perhaps she made iced coffee her whole personality, and you want an iced coffee bar with flavored syrups and her favorite oat milk. 

Celebrate their unique personality, even if it doesn’t fit into a traditional funeral service mold.

2. Compile an Audio Guestbook

Hire a company that does audio guestbooks, like After the Tone or The Audio Guestbook Co. They provide a telephone that people can pick up and leave a message on. After the celebration of life, you get a compilation of all the messages, and it’ll be there whenever you need it.

3. Listen to Their Favorite Music

Put on their favorite music and have everyone sit and listen through a playlist of select songs or even a full album. If your loved one was passionate about a certain artist or genre, this will be a beautiful way to honor them.

4. Take a Guided Walk

If your person went on the same walk every day or spent a lot of time in a certain neighborhood, take a guided walk together to retrace their steps. Go to their favorite spots and have someone play tour guide to explain what they liked to do there. You can also have the last stop be the official funeral service.

5. Create a Scrapbook

Have a blank scrapbook out on a memory table at the celebration of life for guests to contribute to. In addition to adding photos and memorabilia, guests can write memories on pages that have prompts written at the top, like:

• Life lessons you taught me
• Things you always said
• If we could have one more… (dinner out at our spot, glass of sweet tea on the porch, scary movie marathon, etc.)
• Funny memories
• Favorite memories
• Family time
• Trips together
• School days

6. Do an Activity They Loved

Design: Bonjour Berry | In Our Hearts Invitation

Indicate on the celebration of life invitation that you’re going to get out and do something together. Whether it’s golfing, karaoke, baking, walking dogs, or bird watching, you’ll feel connected to them as you partake in their favorite activity.

7. Have a Potluck

This celebration of life idea makes sure the host doesn’t have to stress too much — have everyone bring your loved one’s favorite food and drinks. You can have guests sign up for dishes so there aren’t any repeats. You can also do a plain and simple potluck, where people bring whatever they want.

8. Cook Together

One celebration of life idea that gets everyone doing an activity together is cooking dinner. Make all their favorite foods, share memories in the kitchen, and then gather around and eat a meal in their honor.

9. Share Memories

There are a few options for eulogies and sharing memories:

• Have a few chosen people do eulogies: Give them 2-3 minutes each to share stories.
• Open the floor to anyone, open-mic style: Give folks a heads up that you’ll ask them to share memories soon so they have time to think, and have them speak from the heart about the person’s life.
• Give specific prompts for memory sharing: Ask for personal stories about how they impacted you, the best advice they gave, or the funniest thing they ever did. This can help avoid awkward silences if people are nervous.

10. Have Everyone Dress in Their Style

A truly unique celebration of life idea is to have everyone dress like the honoree in some way. Maybe she loved pink so you set a dress code of only pink hues in your invitation wording. Maybe he was never seen without a ballcap, so you ask everyone to wear a hat. Maybe she wore cowboy boots any chance she got, so you ask everyone to dress in Western wear.

11. Use a Creative Guestbook

Have a guestbook so you can remember all the people who came to celebrate your family member or friend. Choose a memento specific to your loved one’s personality as the book, like their favorite novel, a coffee table book related to their passion, or a religious text. People can leave notes in the margins.

12. Play a Video Compilation

Design: Holly Whitcomb | Pastoral Vista Invitation

Edit together clips of their life to show at the service, or put a few video clips into a photo slideshow. Another celebration of life idea is to have friends and family send in short videos sharing a few words about the honoree. You can edit that into a video you can watch at the gathering.

13. Have a Donation Drive

If there was a cause they were particularly passionate about, encourage folks to make donations to their favorite nonprofit instead of bringing flowers. This is a beautiful way to honor their memory and impact the lives of others.

14. Create a Time Capsule

Have everyone bring an item for a time capsule that the family will open on the one-year anniversary of their death. People can put in photos, notes, items that belonged to your loved one, their favorite soda or candy, or anything else they can think of.

15. Include Live Music

Live musicians are a beautiful touch to a celebration of life event. Maybe your loved one enjoyed mariachi bands, classical music, or Irish folk ballads. Hire musicians to come honor a life well-lived by playing their favorite songs.

16. Host a Book Club

Design: Hudson Meet Rose | Framed Loving Memory Invitation

If your friend or family member was a big reader, have a book club gathering to celebrate their memory. Read their favorite book or something that was on their to-be-read list.

17. Have a Movie Marathon

Gather your loved ones in person to watch the deceased’s favorite movies or shows. If she only spoke in “Saturday Night Live” quotes, watch a few of her favorite episodes. If he was obsessed with Meg Ryan movies, watch all her best ones together.

18. Ask for Letters

A poignant way to bask in your loved one’s life is to ask for everyone to bring a letter sharing their favorite memories. You can open them when you need them, and you may learn things about them you never knew.

19. Plant a Memorial Garden

A garden helps keep the memory of your loved one alive long after they’re gone. Plant flowers, herbs, or vegetables to keep their memory alive in a tangible way. Every time you pick the flowers or harvest the vegetables, you’ll have a sweet reminder of the life of your loved one.

20. Put Up a Memory Board

Display a cork board or poster board at the celebration of life service. Ask guests to bring photos, notes, and mementos that remind them of the deceased. The board will be the centerpiece of the memorial service and a keepsake for the family after it ends.

21. Plant a Memorial Tree

Design: Holly Whitcomb | Painted Oak Invitation

One celebration of life idea is to plant a memorial tree that you can watch grow as years and seasons pass. The growth of the tree will be a poignant reminder of how long you’ve been without your family member or friend. You may find comfort sitting under its shade and reflecting on your loved one as time passes.

Always Remembered

Your dearest loved one will never be forgotten, and the celebration of life is a stop along the journey of grief. Amidst the complexity of dealing with death, we hope these ideas make the celebration of life plans just a little bit simpler.

We have a collection of beautiful celebration of life evites that will take the headache out of getting the word out. RSVP tracking and automated event reminders will make this step even easier.