How To Memorialize A Friend Or Relative With A Personalized Headstone
Headstones are placed on graves to identify, honor, and memorialize the lives of friends and relatives. For that reason, it is important to choose a headstone that reflects the individual that it memorializes. To simplify this process, monument companies have a portfolio of designs that you can choose for your loved one's headstone. These headstone designs can be personalized with your choice of granite color and engraved with a personal favorite quote and unique image. Many monument companies will allow you to submit your own headstone design and unique quote to be engraved on a headstone. Here are some options to consider when you choose a headstone for your friend or relative.
Choose a Granite Headstone Color - Granite is an extremely dense and durable stone and is the preferred choice of most people for headstones. Granite is completely stable in all kinds of weather and does not shatter or break easily. Granite is available in many colors such as white, dark gray, light gray, rose, burgundy, deep blue, forest green, brown, black and other colors.
Choose a Headstone Shape and Size - Check with your chosen cemetery and monument company for the shapes and sizes of their available headstones. These headstone shapes and sizes are available for one or two persons for each burial plot. The standard shapes of headstones are as follows:
- Flat Granite Headstones: These engraved headstones are horizontal and are installed flat on the ground without a visible profile.
- Slant Granite Headstones: These engraved headstones are vertical and extend upwards with a slanted front face.
- Granite Bench Headstones: These benches provide a seat for visitors to a gravesite with personalized information about the deceased engraved on the upright structure.
- Bronze Plaque on Granite Headstones: These bronze headstones can be mounted on any of the above granite headstones. Bronze plaque headstones allow for a great amount of detail in the images that are engraved or etched into the metal.
Choose or Design Headstone Artwork - Monument companies offer many headstones in a myriad of designs and images to commemorate a person's religion, occupation, hobby, favorite sport, favorite location, and/or other personal themes. You can also design your own artwork for a headstone for a friend or relative. Here are some things to consider when choosing or designing artwork for a headstone:
- Choose a Design from a Monument Company - Research what designs are available from a monument company. They have many styles and designs that may be perfect to memorialize your loved one.
- Create Your Own Design and Submit It To a Monument Company - If you would like to create your own artwork for a headstone, ask your monument company for the exact format in which to submit your full-sized design. If you are drawing your design by hand, it is best to scan and print it digitally before submitting it to the monument company. In that way, you and the monument company will both have identical versions of your design.
- Submit a Personal Quotation - Chose a personal quote from your deceased friend or relative or a famous quotation that is appropriate to characterize their life and personality.
- Submit a Photographic Portrait - A photograph of the deceased can be submitted to the monument company to be reduced to a line drawing and sized to fit on a headstone. This portrait can then be engraved into the headstone to show the face of the deceased.
Cemeteries and monument companies (such as http://www.elmwoodcaskets.com) may differ in their requirements for custom-designed artwork. Work closely with them to provide your design in the format they need to engrave your design in granite or bronze. With careful research and planning, you can have an ideal memorial headstone to commemorate the life of your friend or relative.