What to Include in a Funeral Program

Six things every funeral program needs, ten more that most families add, the details that get forgotten every time, and the handful that are safer left out. Use it as a checklist and tick down the page.

Updated November 8, 202611 min readWritten by the Reposa team

On this page

The six essentials
What most families add
Where each item goes
Most often forgotten
What to leave out
What changes by service
Extras worth considering
Permission to include less

The six essentials

These are the items a program cannot do without, because the booklet has two jobs at the service: telling people what is happening next, and giving them something to keep.

Every funeral program needs these

Full name, as the person used it · with the nickname in quotation marks and the maiden name in parentheses if either applies
Date of birth and date of death · written the same way in every place they appear
Day, date, start time, venue and street address of the service · the address matters, since many mourners travel in that morning
The order of service · each element on its own line, in sequence, with who is doing it
The officiant, with title · Reverend, Father, Rabbi, Pastor, Celebrant, or the name of the person leading a secular service
A photograph · one is enough, and one good one beats four soft ones

A program that contains only those six is complete. It will look considered rather than sparse, and several of the best programs at any funeral home are exactly that. Everything in the rest of this page is a choice, not a requirement.

What most families add

These are the elements that turn the program from a running order into a keepsake. Add the ones that are true to the person and the service, and leave the rest.

Commonly added, roughly in order of how often

Obituary or life sketch · 250 to 350 words reads better in a program than the full newspaper version
List of survivors · spouse, children, grandchildren, then siblings
Preceded in death by · a short line under the survivors
Pallbearers and honorary pallbearers · usually two columns on the back panel
Readings, with the passage and the reader · people look for their own name here
Music, with the title and who is performing · the organist and the vocalist are named too
Interment details · cemetery name and town, or a line saying burial will be private
Repast or reception · venue, street address and time, written out in full
Acknowledgement from the family · two to four sentences of thanks on the back
A closing verse, poem or line · one short piece, set with space around it
Memorial gift information · in lieu of flowers, and where donations should go
The funeral home name · usually a small line at the foot of the back panel

If you want the exact phrasing for any of these, funeral program wording has the cover lines, headings and acknowledgement paragraphs written out. For the sequence of the service itself, funeral order of service sets out what happens and in what order.

Where each item goes

For the standard four-panel program, which is a single letter sheet folded once, this is the conventional distribution. Nothing here is a rule, but a program built this way is instantly readable to anyone who has been to a funeral before.

Panel	What sits there	Roughly
Front cover	Cover phrase, full name, both dates, photograph, service day and time, venue, officiant	40 to 60 words plus the photo
Inside left	The order of service, top to bottom, with names under each element	15 to 20 lines
Inside right	Obituary or life sketch, then the survivors list	250 to 350 words
Back panel	Pallbearers, interment, reception, acknowledgement, closing verse, funeral home	120 to 180 words

Two common variations. If the order of service is long, the obituary moves to the back and the acknowledgement moves to the bottom of the inside right. If the family list is very large, it takes the whole back panel and the acknowledgement shrinks to one sentence. Funeral program format shows each of these layouts panel by panel, including tri-fold and booklet.

The things families most often forget

These are the omissions that get noticed. None of them are hard to include. They are simply the items that slip past when someone is building a program at eleven at night.

Check each of these before you print

The year on the dates · the month and day get typed correctly and the year gets mistyped more than anything else in the booklet
The reception address · reception to follow tells an out-of-town cousin nothing
The names of readers, singers and musicians · they agreed to do something difficult, and they will look for their name
Honorary pallbearers · the easiest way to include someone who cannot carry
The maiden name · half the room may only ever have known her by it
Grandchildren, all of them, spelled correctly · the single most scrutinized list in the program
Step-children, in-laws and long-term partners · name them the way the family actually thinks of them
Where the family wants donations sent · people want somewhere to put the impulse
A line about photography or phones, if the family has a preference · one small italic line on the back is enough
Whether the burial is public or private · people will follow the hearse unless the program tells them not to

Pallbearers deserve a specific mention. Families frequently list the six carrying and forget that the person who was asked and had to decline for health reasons would be honored to appear as an honorary pallbearer. Pallbearer duties covers how many you need and how the two lists differ.

What to leave out

Funeral programs circulate widely. They are handed to acquaintances, left in pews, photographed and posted. A few things are better kept off the page.

Keep off the program

Home addresses, particularly the surviving spouse’s. The family will be out of the house during the service and the program says exactly when.

Phone numbers and email addresses for family members. Direct people to the funeral home instead.

A full date of birth alongside a mother’s maiden name. Those two together are the standard security questions on a bank account.

Cause of death, unless the family actively wants it there. Nobody expects a program to explain anything medical.

Put on the program instead

The church, funeral home or cemetery address for anything location-related.

The funeral home’s name and town as the point of contact for people who want to reach the family.

The year of birth, or the full date without the maiden name beside it.

A single quiet clause in the obituary if you want one, such as peacefully at home.

One more, and it catches people out. Song lyrics and poems written in the last several decades are still under copyright, and reproducing them in a printed program technically needs permission. Hymns, scripture in older translations, and poetry old enough to be in the public domain are all free to print in full. For anything modern, print the title and the writer and let the music do the rest. The funeral poems page marks which pieces are safe to print, and funeral hymns lists the traditional ones by first line.

Family friction is the last thing to keep off the page. If a survivors list is going to cause an argument, the safest wording is the plainest one: name the immediate family in the usual order, then close with a warm catch-all such as and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

What changes by type of service

The essentials do not move. What changes is the vocabulary and one or two extra items each tradition expects.

Service	Add	Note
Catholic funeral Mass	Responsorial Psalm and its response, the Gospel reference, the Communion hymn, the Song of Farewell	The parish usually has the readings already chosen. Ask before you set them.
Homegoing service	Resolutions, acknowledgement of cards, the order of speakers, the repast	Reflections are often limited to two minutes, and the program is where that is said politely.
Military honors	Rank, branch, years of service, the honors detail, Taps, flag presentation	Confirm rank and dates with the family rather than from memory.
Celebration of life	An open-microphone note, the reception details, sometimes a dress-code line	Often held weeks later, so the program can carry more photographs.
Graveside only	The cemetery address, parking or gate instructions, and the committal words	A single folded card is usually enough for a graveside service.
Non-religious service	Readings with the author named, the person leading, the closing words	Check every heading for religious language that crept in from a template.

If the service is a celebration of life rather than a funeral, the contents shift further still, and the celebration of life program page covers what belongs in one.

Extras worth considering

None of these are expected. Each one is worth including only if it fits the person or genuinely helps the people in the room.

A second photograph inside · a small strip of three works better than one large collage
A QR code linking to a slideshow or memorial page · useful for the people who could not travel
The full text of a hymn everyone will be asked to sing · only if the hymnals in the pews do not have it
A one-line invitation to share a memory · where to send it, or a table at the reception
A short note of thanks to caregivers by name · hospice staff, a home aide, a neighbor who drove to appointments
A line in the person’s own words · something they always said, in quotation marks, under the photo

Small lines that earn their space

One or two of these, not all six

The family invites you to share a memory at the table by the door.

Photographs are welcome after the service, not during.

Please join us at the fellowship hall following the burial. There is parking behind the building on Sherman Street.

Our thanks to the staff of Woodland Hospice, who were kind to him every single day.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Caritas food pantry.

“Well, we might as well have the pie.” Something he said at every family dinner for forty years

Reposa builds all of this from the answers you give it: the program with each panel laid out, a first draft of the obituary, matching prayer cards, and, on a separate page, a photo slideshow you download and play from a laptop. If you would rather assemble it yourself, how to make a funeral program walks through the eight steps and the printing.

Permission to include less

You are allowed to do less than you think. Nobody at the service is auditing the program. They are looking for the name, the time, and what happens next, and then they are folding it into a coat pocket to keep.

If you are short of time, or short of information, or simply short of the energy this takes, drop these in this order: the photo collage, the poem, the memorial gift line, the list of survivors, the obituary. What is left is the cover, the order of service and a sentence of thanks. That is a real program, and it has been printed at good funerals for a hundred years.

The one thing worth slowing down for is names. Get every name spelled the way that person spells it, and check the survivors list with one other member of the family before it goes to print. Everything else on this page can be wrong or missing and no one will mind. A name will be remembered.

Common questions

What must a funeral program include?

Six things: the full name of the person who died, the dates of birth and death, the date, time and place of the service, the order of service, the name of the officiant, and usually a photograph. Everything beyond that is optional. A program with only those six is complete and looks entirely proper.

Do you put the obituary in the funeral program?

Most families do, usually a shortened version of about 250 to 350 words rather than the full published one. It goes on the inside right panel under a heading such as Obituary or Life Sketch. If space is tight, the family list and the service details matter more than a long life story.

Are pallbearers listed in the funeral program?

Yes, and honorary pallbearers as well. They are normally set in two columns on the back panel or at the foot of the order of service. Honorary pallbearers are people the family wants to name but who will not carry, which is a gentle way to include someone who is unwell or far away.

Should the program include the cause of death?

No, and most programs do not. If the obituary printed inside mentions it at all, one clause is enough, such as peacefully at home or after a long illness. There is no expectation that a program explains anything medical, and no one at the service will find its absence strange.

Do you list survivors in a funeral program?

It is common and it is optional. When it is included, the order runs spouse, children and their partners, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, then parents and siblings, followed by those who died earlier. This is the most closely read list in the booklet, so check it with a second family member before printing.

Can you print song lyrics in a funeral program?

Hymns and poems old enough to be in the public domain can be printed in full. Songs and poems written more recently are still under copyright, and reproducing them technically requires permission. In practice, printing the title and the performer is always safe and takes far less room on the panel.

How many pages should a funeral program be?

One letter sheet folded once gives four panels and suits most services. Move up to a folded booklet only if you have a long order of service, several photographs, or a large family list. More pages is not more respectful, and a crowded booklet is harder to follow during the service.