Celebration of Life Program Template
On this page
Four fill-in-the-blank templates
Copy whichever one fits, then work top to bottom replacing the square brackets. Panel markers are there to show you where the folds fall. Delete them before printing.
Template 1: folded program, four panels
Letter sheet folded once. The standard choice.
[FRONT PANEL]
A Celebration of the Life of
[FULL NAME, WITH THE NAME THEY WERE ACTUALLY CALLED IN QUOTATION MARKS]
[BIRTH YEAR] – [YEAR OF DEATH]
[DAY AND DATE] [VENUE NAME] [STREET, CITY] [START TIME]
[Photograph]
[INSIDE LEFT PANEL]
[FIRST NAME]'s life
[FIRST NAME] was born [FULL NAME AT BIRTH IF DIFFERENT] on [FULL DATE OF BIRTH] in [TOWN, STATE], the [POSITION] of [PARENTS' NAMES]'s [NUMBER] children.
[ONE SENTENCE ABOUT SCHOOL, MILITARY SERVICE, OR HOW THEY CAME TO WHERE THEY LIVED]
[HOW THEY MET THEIR SPOUSE OR PARTNER, THE YEAR THEY MARRIED, AND HOW LONG IT LASTED]
[THE WORK THEY DID, AND ONE THING THEY WERE KNOWN FOR AT IT]
[TWO OR THREE SPECIFIC THINGS THEY ACTUALLY DID: WHAT THEY GREW, DROVE, COOKED, WATCHED, ARGUED ABOUT, SHOWED UP FOR]
[WHO DIED BEFORE THEM, IF YOU WANT TO SAY]
[FIRST NAME] died on [DATE OF DEATH] [AT HOME / AT PLACE], with [WHO WAS THERE].
[INSIDE RIGHT PANEL]
Today
As you arrive [MUSIC OR SIMPLY: photographs on the table and the guest book by the door]
Welcome [HOST’S NAME], [RELATIONSHIP]
[FIRST NAME]'s life [SPEAKER’S NAME], [RELATIONSHIP]
Reading [TITLE] by [AUTHOR] Read by [READER’S NAME]
[NUMBER] people who knew [HIM / HER / THEM] [NAME], [ONE LINE ON HOW THEY KNEW EACH OTHER] [NAME], [ONE LINE] [NAME], [ONE LINE]
Music “[SONG TITLE]” [WHY THIS SONG]
Open floor If you have a story, come up. [INSTRUCTION ABOUT THE MICROPHONE OR HOW LONG]
Thank you [HOST’S NAME]
Then: food [WHERE IT IS AND HOW LONG IT WILL BE OUT]
[BACK PANEL]
THANK YOU
[ONE SENTENCE THANKING PEOPLE FOR COMING]
[ONE SENTENCE THANKING WHOEVER CARED FOR THEM BY NAME: HOSPICE, NURSES, NEIGHBORS, A CARE HOME]
[IF YOU ARE ASKING FOR DONATIONS]
[FIRST NAME] would rather you gave to [ORGANIZATION, FULL NAME AND CITY] than sent flowers.
BEFORE YOU GO
[THE ONE THING YOU WANT FROM GUESTS: write a story on a card, email your photographs to this address, take a bulb from the box, sign the book]
[EMAIL ADDRESS OR MAILING ADDRESS IF YOU ARE ASKING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS]
If you fill in nothing but the front panel and the inside right, you still have a usable program. The life story is the part families agonize over, and it is the part guests are least likely to read standing up.
Template 2: single card, front and back
5 x 7 flat card. For when there is no time, or a small gathering.
[FRONT]
[FULL NAME] [BIRTH YEAR] – [YEAR OF DEATH]
[Photograph]
[OPTIONAL: ONE LINE. Come as you are. / Bring a story. / She would have hated the fuss.]
[BACK]
[DAY, DATE] · [VENUE] · [START TIME]
Welcome, [NAME] A few words about [FIRST NAME], [NAME] Reading, [TITLE], read by [NAME] [NAME] and [NAME] speak Music, “[SONG TITLE]” Anyone who would like to say something Thank you, [NAME]
Then please eat. [WHERE THE FOOD IS.]
· · ·
[ONE SENTENCE OF THANKS]
[DONATIONS LINE, OR DELETE]
Template 3: a gathering built around open sharing
When the point of the day is that everybody speaks.
[FRONT PANEL]
REMEMBERING [FULL NAME] [BIRTH YEAR] – [YEAR OF DEATH]
[DAY AND DATE] · [VENUE] · [TIME]
We are here to tell stories about [FIRST NAME]. Please bring one.
[INSIDE]
How this will go
[TIME] Doors, music, food out Look at the photographs. Write in the book. Find someone you have not seen in years.
[TIME] [HOST’S NAME] says hello About five minutes.
[TIME] Three people start us off [NAME], [RELATIONSHIP] [NAME], [RELATIONSHIP] [NAME], [RELATIONSHIP]
[TIME] Open floor There is a microphone at the front. If you would rather not stand up, that is completely fine. There are cards on the table and we will read every one.
[TIME] “[SONG TITLE]” [WHY THIS SONG. Please stay seated. / Please sing if you know it.]
[TIME] [HOST’S NAME] closes
After that, we stay as long as [VENUE] lets us.
[BACK PANEL]
If you would like to speak and you are nervous: say the person’s name, tell one story with a beginning and an end, and sit down. Two minutes is plenty. Nobody here is judging you.
THANK YOU
[THANKS PARAGRAPH]
[DONATIONS LINE, OR DELETE]
Template 4: outdoors, with a scattering or a planting
Park, beach, backyard, or the family land.
[FRONT PANEL]
FOR [FULL NAME] [BIRTH YEAR] – [YEAR OF DEATH]
[PLACE] · [DAY AND DATE] · [TIME]
[WEATHER AND PRACTICAL LINE: The ground is uneven. There are chairs at the front for anyone who needs one. If it rains we move under the pavilion and carry on.]
[INSIDE]
Welcome [NAME]
Why here [ONE OR TWO SENTENCES ABOUT WHY THIS PLACE. This was the turn in the trail he walked every morning for thirty years.]
A few words about [FIRST NAME] [NAME]
Reading [TITLE] by [AUTHOR] Read by [NAME]
[TWO OR THREE PEOPLE SPEAK] [NAME], [RELATIONSHIP] [NAME], [RELATIONSHIP]
A minute of quiet For your own thoughts, or your own prayers
[THE SCATTERING / THE PLANTING / THE FLOWERS] [EXACTLY WHAT WILL HAPPEN AND WHAT GUESTS SHOULD DO. Please stay where you are, or come forward when you are ready and take a handful. There are petals in the baskets, so throw them into the water if you would like to.]
Music “[SONG TITLE]”
Thank you, and please eat [NAME]
[BACK PANEL]
[PRACTICAL BLOCK: Restrooms are past the playground. Water is in the coolers. Parking is along the road, on the grass side.]
THANK YOU
[THANKS PARAGRAPH]
[DONATIONS LINE, OR DELETE]
What each blank is asking for
Most of the brackets are obvious. These are the five that stop people, with the answer that usually works.
| The blank | What to put there | If you are stuck |
|---|---|---|
| [NAME THEY WERE ACTUALLY CALLED] | The name friends used, in quotation marks inside the full name: Margaret "Peg" Delaney | If half the room knew them by a nickname and half by their given name, use both. Nobody has ever objected to seeing both. |
| [TWO OR THREE SPECIFIC THINGS THEY DID] | Concrete, checkable facts. Swam at six every weekday. Grew dahlias too big for their bed. Wrote actual letters. | Ask two family members for the first thing that comes to mind and use whatever they say, even if it seems small. Small is what people recognize. |
| [WHY THIS SONG] | One clause after a dash: played it on the porch every summer; his ringtone for twelve years; the only song she would dance to. | If there is no story, delete the clause and print the title alone. A song does not need a justification. |
| [THE ONE THING YOU WANT FROM GUESTS] | A single instruction on the back panel: write a story on a card, email photographs to this address, take a bulb from the box by the door. | Pick one. Two requests get half done, three get ignored entirely. |
| [ORGANIZATION, FULL NAME AND CITY] | The full legal name plus the city, because charity names repeat: the Corvallis Public Library Foundation, Corvallis, Oregon. | If you have not decided, write "the family will name a charity later" or leave the block out. You can add it to a thank-you card afterward. |
For the life-story panel, the fastest route is to write the obituary first and then cut it down; it is far easier than expanding a short version. Obituary templates has the fill-in-the-blank version of that, and a celebration-of-life variant among them.
Which format and size to choose
Four formats cover essentially every celebration of life. The deciding factor is not the guest count, it is how much text you have.
| Format | Finished size | Panels | Holds about | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flat card | 5 x 7 in | 2 (front and back) | 150 words | Small gatherings, short notice, and anything printed the night before |
| Bi-fold | 5.5 x 8.5 in folded | 4 | 500–600 words | The default. A life story, the order, and a back panel with room to spare |
| Tri-fold | 3.67 x 8.5 in folded | 6 | 500 words | A long order of service with short blocks. Narrow panels suit lists, not paragraphs |
| Booklet | 5.5 x 8.5 in, saddle stitched | 8 or 12 | 1,000+ words | Photograph pages, several tributes, a long life story, or a large formal gathering |
A booklet is the one to think twice about. It looks generous and it is genuinely more work: more pages to proofread, a stapler or a print shop to bind it, and more chance of a page falling out of order. If you are reaching for a booklet only because a bi-fold felt too small, add a second photograph to the bi-fold instead.
Funeral program sizes has the full dimensions, including how these fold out of standard paper, and funeral program templates covers the more formal layouts if the service turns out to be a funeral after all.
Section headings you can swap in
Formal funeral headings sound wrong at a celebration, and most families notice it only when they read the proof aloud. Every heading below sits in the same slot, so you can swap one for another without changing anything else.
| The moment | Headings that work |
|---|---|
| The order itself | Today · This afternoon · How this will go · The order · Order of service |
| Before it starts | As you arrive · While we gather · Before we begin · Doors and music |
| The opening | Welcome · Hello · A word from the family · [NAME] says hello |
| The life story | [FIRST NAME]'s life · A short life of [FIRST NAME] · Where [HE / SHE] came from · About Dad |
| A reading | Reading · A poem for [FIRST NAME] · Something [SHE] liked · Words |
| The speakers | Three people who knew her · Friends speak · Tributes · People who want to say something |
| Quiet | A minute of quiet · A moment of silence · Quiet, for your own thoughts |
| Music | Music · A song for [FIRST NAME] · "[TITLE]" · One more song |
| Open sharing | Open floor · Anyone who would like to speak · Your turn · Stories |
| The close | Thank you · Before we eat · Last word · Farewell |
| Food | Then: food · Please eat · Reception · Afterward · Stay as long as you like |
One caution about first-person headings. “About Dad” reads beautifully if the program is clearly from the children, and slightly odd to a room that includes his colleagues and his sister. If the guest list is wider than the immediate family, use the name.
If you want the standard sequence of a full service to build from, funeral order of service templates has fill-in versions for six kinds of service, including a celebration.
Printing it so the fold lines up
Whatever you lay the program out in, the four things below are what actually go wrong, and all four are avoidable.
The four print problems worth ten minutes
- Print one copy and fold it before you print a hundred · this catches upside-down back panels, which is the single most common error
- Set double-sided printing to flip on the short edge · the long-edge default is what turns the back panel upside down
- Keep half an inch of margin all the way around · home printers cannot print to the edge, and a print shop needs bleed set up differently
- Check the photograph at actual size, not on screen · anything under about 1000 pixels on its long side will look soft at four inches wide
On paper: 28 lb bond (105 gsm, about 70 lb text) or a light cardstock feels substantial without being stiff enough to fight the fold. Standard 20 lb copy paper works and looks like copy paper, which is fine at a small gathering and noticeable at a large one. Matte holds up better than gloss, because gloss shows fingerprints and a program gets handled all afternoon.
Print shops can usually turn a celebration program around in a day, and most will fold for a small charge, which is worth it above about fifty copies. Folding a hundred programs by hand takes longer than anyone expects and it is a job nobody in the family should be doing the night before. Funeral program printing goes through paper, folding and where to get it done, and free funeral program templates covers the no-cost route if you are printing at home.
Before you send it to print
Read the proof out loud, then check this list
- Both dates, checked against the death certificate, not from memory
- Every speaker’s name spelled the way they spell it · middle initials, hyphenated surnames, accents
- Each speaker’s relationship, in the words the family uses · her son, his climbing partner, from the shop
- Song titles in quotation marks, with a stand or sit instruction underneath
- Reading titles with the author and the reader named · and check the poem is one you can legally reprint in full
- Venue address, start time, and the reception address if it is elsewhere
- Donation charity with its full legal name and city · and a note about whether checks go to the family or direct
- One clear instruction on the back panel and only one · cards, photographs, or bulbs, but not all three
- The dress line, if you want one · without it, guests default to black and then feel wrong
- Print count · one for every two guests, plus twenty-five to fifty spares, the family’s copies among them
A note on doing less. There is no version of this that is required. If you print a flat card with a photograph, two dates, five lines of order and the address of the food, you have made a real program, and the people who take it home will keep it for thirty years. Nobody counts panels.
If you would rather answer questions than fight with text boxes, Reposa takes these same fields and lays out a print-ready PDF with matching cards. Finished, filled-in versions of all four templates are on celebration of life program examples, the order and panel wording is explained on celebration of life program, and the day itself is covered in how to plan a celebration of life.
Common questions
Do I need Word or Publisher to use these templates?
How many words fit on a folded celebration of life program?
Should the program have the full obituary in it?
Can I use a photo that is a bit blurry or old?
What if we do not know the order yet?
How many programs should we print?
Keep reading
- Celebration of Life ProgramHow a celebration of life program is put together: the order, the wording, and how it differs from a traditional funeral.
- Celebration of Life Program ExamplesReal celebration of life program examples for outdoor, restaurant, home and memorial-garden gatherings, panel by panel.
- Non-Religious Funeral ProgramA secular funeral program with a warm, non-religious order of service, readings and wording that never mentions faith.
- How to Plan a Celebration of LifeA practical plan for a celebration of life: when to hold it, where, who speaks, food, music, and what to hand out.