Selection Process

Often a simple choice, sometimes many factors need to be considered in choosing an urn.

What's the purpose?  Where will it live?

I made my mother's urn which now resides in a burial vault built for a casket, which she purchased many years ago. We repurposed the burial vault to hold her urn of ashes in the graveyard, beside the plot where my father will rest. Often the size of the crypt determines the size of the urn that can be buried.  The burial vault the memory garden offered to us, in place of the casket vault we had already purchased, was a bit smaller, and wouldn't have held the large domed urn that we had chosen. So we used the original casket vault. If burying an urn, the size of the vault could be a factor.

Will the urn reside on a bookshelf, or a fireplace mantle or another area in your home? Harmonizing with the specific site where it will live may be important.

What size?

Perhaps the weight of the buried one will be the determining factor. Cubic inches of ashes correspond to pounds of a cremated being.  A fifty cubic inch urn will hold ashes of a fifty pound dog. 

How many places or people want to keep an urn?

Are there a number of family members who want to keep a portion of ashes?

Will some of the ashes be spread in a designated place, leaving just a portion to be kept and memorialized in a smaller urn?

My nephew had five brothers and sisters, each sibling got a portion, and there was an urn for mother and father to have as well.

How important are aesthetic choices?

Aesthetics hold meaning. Finding something you, or the loved one you are remembering, appreciates or finds beautiful can hold clues or give clarity as to what is appropriate. Heart, head and gut all can help to choose.