Attending funerals at funeral homes in Mount Sterling Heights, MI may feel very similar to attending weddings for you. If you feel this way, you’re not alone. Many people lump weddings and funerals together as the two life events they least like to attend.

There is a reason for this. Weddings and funerals have many things about them that are similar, even though weddings are happy life events and funerals are sad life events.

The first similarity between weddings and funerals is that are very emotional. At weddings, emotions soar to the highest heights, as everyone is enthralled at the union of a couple who has a whole new, and potentially, wonderful life ahead of them. At funerals, on the other hand, emotions sink to the deepest lows, as the life of someone who was loved has ended and friends and family must go on without them.

Another similarity between weddings and funerals is that everyone dresses up. At weddings, the dress-up clothes are bright and colorful, while at funerals, the dress-up clothes are dark and muted. Women wear high heels and lots of jewelry to weddings, while they wear flat shoes and little to no jewelry at funerals.

Weddings and funerals are also alike in that there are a lot of flowers. At weddings, flowers adorn the platform where the bride and groom will take their vows. Flower girls strew petals from flowers down the aisle in advance of the bride. Groomsmen have flowers in the lapels of their jackets. The bride tosses a wedding bouquet of flowers over her head toward the single ladies to see which one will walk down the aisle next (or, so the tradition says).

At funerals, plants, flower arrangements, flower wreaths, and flower sprays surround the casket during the funeral service. Pallbearers may wear flowers in their lapels. And at the gravesite, flowers are placed around and on the casket in preparation for burial. In some funeral traditions, mourners either lay a single flower on the casket at the cemetery, or they thrown them onto the casket once it’s lowered into the grave and before the grave is covered.

Another similarity between weddings and funerals is that things are organized by a director. For weddings, a wedding director takes care of all the details of the arrangements to make sure the wedding goes off without a hitch (this includes decorations, catering, the wedding cake, and making sure everyone’s where they’re supposed to and on time).

With funerals, the funeral director takes care of all the details of the arrangements to make sure that the deceased has an honorable and respectable funeral without any things happening that could cause the family consternation or increase their stress.

Weddings and funerals also can involve the family having conflicts over the service or the décor. We’ve all heard the gorilla bride stories where usually the mother of the bride (and perhaps the mother of the groom) and the bride fight over every single detail of the service and the décor. Similarly, families can often have major disagreements about funerals, including the service and the décor.

A final similarity is that weddings and funerals are both events that involve saying goodbye to someone you love. When a father gives his daughter away, he and his wife are saying goodbye in a sense to her as solely a part of their family. While this is a soft goodbye, it still brings tears. At a funeral, however, the goodbye is final for this life. And it also brings tears.

For more information about funerals at funeral homes in Mount Sterling Heights, MI, our compassionate and experienced staff at Lee-Ellena Funeral Home can help. You can come by our funeral home at 46530 Romeo Plank Rd., Macomb, MI, 48044 or you can contact us today at (586) 412-8999.