Funeral Director Central Coast & Sydney
We are an independent provider of funeral services to the Central Coast, Hornsby, Gosford, and the Northern Sydney region. Our funeral director, Deborah George, will personally arrange a funeral to honour your beloved family member.
Whether you’re after a low cost funeral, a direct cremation, or a traditional funeral service, Deborah will compassionately guide you through the steps following a bereavement.
Types Of Funeral Services
Burial Funerals
Around 40% of all funerals are traditional burial funerals. Some religions mandate burial rather than cremation. There are two main forms: the most common is a service in a church, chapel or other location, and then a short graveside service; a less common option is just to have a longer graveside service.
Cremation Funerals
These days, cremation is the most chosen type of funeral on the central coast Sydney. It is also the most affordable option. We can organize a same-day cremation if that is required. Our funeral director will organize a service to suit your wishes: something simple, or something unique or elaborate.
Prepaid Funeral Plans
By prepaying funeral costs, the price remains fixed, which saves your family or your estate a good deal of money. Alternatively, you can pre-arrange your funeral without prepaying for it, ensuring you get the send-off that you want, and saving your family the stress of organizing it.
How To Arrange A Funeral
We understand that organizing a funeral service can be an emotional and daunting task. Our aim is to make it as easy and simple as possible for you.
1. Contact Us
2. Meet Our Funeral Director
3. We Organize The Funeral
What Do Funeral Directors Do?
The job of a funeral director is to make it easy for the family of the deceased to organize a fitting farewell for their loved one. Our funeral director will help you formulate your vision, and then take care of all the details for you.
What is included in the cost of a funeral from Serenity?
- Meeting & Information:
Our funeral director, Deborah, explains the process and the various options, and helps you decide on what arrangements you’d like. This includes: burial or cremation; whether to have a viewing; chapel/church service and/or graveside committal; venue for the service; as well as other options such as: printed material, newspaper notices, digital slideshow, dove release, livestream/videoing, live musicians, etc. - Mortuary care:
- Liaising with the hospital, the nursing home, and the doctor.
- Arranging for the deceased to be transported to the mortuary.
- Preparation and dressing of the deceased.
- Arrange for embalming. (Optional)
- Burial fees or Crematorium fees.
- Arrange the death certificate and necessary paperwork.
- Casket or coffin.
- The funeral service:
- Floral arrangement for the coffin.
- Booking the venue and liaising with the celebrant or clergy.
- Transportation of deceased.
- (Optional) Videoing and/or livestreaming.
- (Optional) Photos, music, printed material etc.
- (Optional) A viewing.
- (Optional) Post-life celebration (wake) with catering.
What isn’t included in the cost of a funeral package?
Burial Plot:
The cost of our burial packages do not include the cost of a burial plot at the cemetery. You must purchase a plot directly from the cemetery. Burial plots on the Central Coast cost over $3400, and northern Sydney burial plots cost over $10,000.
Cremation Memorial Location:
Our cremation funeral prices do not include the cost of a final resting place for the ashes, in a memorial park on the Central Coast. In northern Sydney an in-ground memorial will costs upwards of $4000, and a wall niche costs at least $2500, but on the Central Coast they will cost less than that. An alternative to a memorial park is to take your loved-one’s ashes home with you and keep them in an urn, or to scatter them in an appropriate place at an appropriate time.
Buying a burial plot or ashes memorial
How Much Does a Funeral Cost?
Our Funeral Director & Team
Serenity Family Funerals is proudly owned and operated by Deborah George. As the lead Funeral Director, Deb and her team have been organizing funeral services on the Central Coast and in Sydney, for over 25 years. Arranging services for families of different faiths, backgrounds, and cultures.
Deb became a funeral director in her early 20s, and discovered that she was able to make a positive difference by guiding families through grief, and honouring their wishes with care and dependability. Deb is a genuinely empathetic and compassionate person who feels it is an honour and privilege to be entrusted with helping families through the emotional process of arranging a funeral service and farewelling their loved ones.
When you entrust us with your funeral arrangements, you’ll only deal with our funeral director throughout the entire process, not with multiple employees like you might with corporate-owned funeral homes on the Central Coast.
Our funeral director, Deb, will respond to your enquiry, then meet with you to make a plan, and will then make all the arrangements, then will also be present at the service. It’s that continuity and personal relationship that ensures your wishes are understood and are carefully carried out.
Cremation or Burial?
One of the decisions you’ll need to make when planning a funeral service is whether to have a burial or a cremation. There are a variety of reasons why you might choose one or the other. The average cost of a burial funeral service is roughly the same as for a cremation service. However, the total cost of a burial will be higher than the total cost of a cremation because with a burial you also need to buy a burial plot from a cemetery, at an average cost of around $3500 in the Central Coast and over $10000 in Northern Sydney. With cremation, you can either scatter the ashes somewhere nice, or buy an internment plot for the ashes (which are much cheaper).
A direct cremation is the cheapest funeral option. It is an unattended cremation without a ceremony. You’ll receive the ashes of your loved one, and then you can organize a private memorial service if you wish.
Guidance Through The Stages Of Grief
Grief is the natural response associated with a loss, and people experience it differently. There isn’t a right or wrong way to grieve, however, understanding the phases of grief gives you healthy coping mechanisms that you can use to deal with painful and unexpected emotions. This article gives you the information you need to help yourself, and also help others in your family, to more effectively get through these difficult times.
How to Write Eulogy
Public speaking is a challenge for most people, and when combined with the emotion of saying farewell to a dearly departed, delivering a eulogy can feel like an overwhelming task. But, if you are able to do it, it’s is a unique and meaningful way of deeply honouring your loved one. But, if you are able to do it, it’s is a unique and meaningful way of deeply honouring your loved one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Arranging to mark the passing of a loved one is something that most people haven’t done before. Therefore, it’s normal to have many unanswered questions about it. On this FAQ page, we will answer your questions about this delicate subject, including questions such as: How do I get death certificate? How long between the death and the service? Can I actively participate in the service / ceremony? Where can a service be held?