Memorial Cards

Templates you can fill in

Copy the one that matches the format you are printing and replace everything in brackets. The line breaks are already where a designer would put them.

Finished examples

Four complete card backs, ready to adapt. Names, dates and towns are invented. Everything quoted is in the public domain, so you can print it without asking anyone.

The four formats

Most families print the flat card. Choose the folded card if you want one printed piece to do everything and the service is short. Choose the memorial folder only if you are not printing a separate funeral program, because two pieces carrying the same order of service is a waste of both.

Exact dimensions, bleed, trim and how many fit on a sheet are all on prayer card size.

Memorial card or prayer card

People use the two names for the same object, and funeral homes are no more consistent than anyone else. If it matters to you, this is the distinction as most families understand it.

Nothing stops you printing a card with a prayer on it and calling it a memorial card, or the reverse. When you order, describe what you want on it rather than which name it goes by.

Choosing the words

This is the part families stall on, usually at eleven at night. Two things make it easier. First, the card is small: you are choosing four to eight lines, not writing anything. Second, almost nobody reads the verse closely. They look at the photograph, read the name and the dates, and put the card in a pocket. Choose something plain and move on.

• “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

  Psalm 23:1, King James Version

  The shortest respectable Christian option.

• “Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.”

  Emily Dickinson, 1830–1886

  Ten words. Fits any card, any size.

• “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.”

  Thomas Campbell, 1777–1844

  Non-religious and very widely used.

• “Say not in grief that she is no more, but in thankfulness that she was.”

  Traditional Hebrew saying

  Works for a Jewish or an interfaith family.

• “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.”

  Traditional Catholic prayer

  The standard Catholic card text.

• “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”

  Psalm 23:6, King James Version

  The closing line, on its own, is enough.

Sixty more, sorted by faith and by length, are on funeral prayer card verses. For something longer to read aloud at the service rather than print, see funeral poems.

Writing your own

Three sentences is plenty, and the specific ones beat the general ones every time. Not “she loved her family” but “she called every Sunday at four.” Ask two relatives for the first thing that comes into their heads about the person and use whichever answer makes you both laugh. That is the card people keep.

Copyright, briefly

Modern poems and song lyrics are still under copyright, and a memorial card is a reproduction. Nobody is going to come after a grieving family, but if it would bother you, print the title and the author instead and have the poem read at the service. Anything published before about 1930, including the King James Bible, Dickinson, Whitman, Stevenson, Rossetti, Tennyson and traditional blessings, you can print in full without a thought.

Matching the program

A memorial card that looks like it belongs with the program takes no extra work, only one decision made once. Use the same photograph, the same typeface and the same background on both. That is the whole trick.

If the program layout is still open, the panel-by-panel guide on funeral program format covers the same design decisions at a larger size, and the wording for the back page is on funeral acknowledgement wording.

Reposa builds the card and the program from the same set of answers, so the photograph, the typeface and the color are already shared across both, and the card comes out as a print-ready PDF.

Quantity, stock and printing

How many

Start with the funeral director’s estimate of attendance, then add about half again. Cards leave faster than programs: people take a second one for someone who could not travel, and the family will want a stack for the weeks afterward. Round up to the printer’s next pack size, which usually costs very little more than the one below it.

Stock and finish

Ask for 14 pt or 100 lb cover stock, full color both sides. Gloss lamination gives the traditional holy-card feel and stops the card curling in a wallet; matte looks softer and is easier to write on. Rounded corners are a small extra and make a real difference to how the card feels in the hand.

Where

Ask the funeral home first, because cards are often already included in the package you have signed for. Otherwise any local print shop will turn them around in a day from a PDF. If you are doing it yourself, the step-by-step is on how to make funeral prayer cards, and the same process applies whatever you call the card.

You are allowed to do less than you think

Nothing about the service depends on these. If the week has run out, print a plain card with the photograph, the name, the two dates and one line, or skip them and mail them later with the thank-you notes. No one has ever left a funeral wishing the card had been fancier.

What to do with the leftovers

You will have extras, and they are worth more than they look. Families typically:

Keep the PDF too, somewhere you can find it. Anniversaries, memorial services a year later, and family members who surface late all tend to want the same card again, and reprinting from the original file costs a fraction of starting over. Wording for the notes that go out with them is on funeral thank you card wording.