Why 'family flowers only'?

aliasojo

When organising funerals some families request 'family flowers only', but I've never been very sure why?

tea_lover

When I've seen this there's usually also been a comment about donations to a chosen charity instead of flowers. We did this for my Nan. We wanted her to have some flowers, from us. But we also didn't want people 'wasting' money that could have been put to better use.

minimoneysaver

In our case it was because we'd rather have a donation to charity and afterall, flowers just die.

minimoneysaver

Cross post with tea lover

londonsurrey

I don't know about everyone else, but for my husband's funeral, I didn't want hundreds of pounds wasted on flowers (there were nearly 100 people there).

I didn't feel I had the right to dictate to his immediate family whether or not they gave flowers, but for people who didn't mind, I'd rather the local animal sanctuary (of which we were very fond) benefited.

Spendless

Because some people want a balance between having too many flowers that will wither and die, and not wanting no flowers. In addition people may want to raise money for a chosen charity, but have a few flowers too. Asking family flowers or close family flowers only can provide that mix.

podperson

I guess some people feel that it's a bit of a waste for lots of the guests to spend money on expensive flower arrangements etc when they will have nowhere to put them and it will just be a bit of a waste. As mentioned above this request is often paired with a mention of donations to a specific charity instead.

newcook

Most funerals I have been to, there has only been a certain amount of room for the flowers – if everyone who attends the funeral sends flowers the plot will be inundated!

pollypenny

As above - better to give money to a charity supported by the one who has passed away.

jackieb

We had family flowers only, with donations in lieu if so desired for charity, at my Dad's funeral. We think it's a waste of money for people to pay a lot of money for a wreath. A couple of people outwith the family asked if they could put flowers anyway, and we said yes, because that's what they wanted (they also gave money to our chosen charity), but we didn't want anyone to feel obliged to put flowers.

There was still quite a few wreaths though as nieces and nephews, and in-laws sent flowers.

Surfbabe

We had one arrangement from family and then donations - Motor Neuron Disease Association benefited by nearly £1000. A funeral held where I live recently had nearly 500 people there - if they had all sent flowers there would have been no room for mourners - instead hey had immediate family flowers only and raised over £2000 for MacMillan. My dad was a Vicar and he didn't like seeing all the flowers just withering away on the plot after the funeral as they were no use to anyone but as with all things its personal choice. One thing that gets me is the astronomical cost of having 'official' funeral wreaths etc. and so I wouldn't want anyone to feel that that was they had to do _ I'd rather a £5 to charity than £50 on flowers