Published: 22 July 2026

Losing someone is not a moment where anyone wants to think about print. And yet the order of service is one of the few things at a funeral that families take home, hand to relatives who couldn't make it, and keep on a shelf for years. Getting it right matters more than most people realise.

We've been printing orders of service at our works in Llangefni for as long as anyone can remember. Sometimes families come to us direct. More often, we work through a funeral director who's handling the arrangements. Either way, this is what we've learned about making the process as calm and quick as possible.

What an order of service is, and what goes in one

An order of service is the booklet handed out at the entrance to a funeral or memorial service. It's usually a folded card or a small stapled booklet, printed in colour, and it typically contains:

• A photograph of the person on the front, sometimes their name, dates, and a phrase or verse
• The order of the service inside: hymns, readings, prayers, eulogy notes
• The full text of any hymns being sung, so mourners can follow along
• A short tribute or biography
• Details of any refreshments or gathering afterwards
• A thank-you on the back cover

There's no fixed rule about what goes in. Some families want a simple two-sided card, others want a 12 or 16 page booklet with photographs throughout. Both work. What matters is that the content is what the family wants, and that the printed piece feels considered rather than rushed.

Formats we most often print

Three formats cover almost everything:

• A5 folded card (4 pages). A single A4 sheet, printed both sides, folded down the middle. Suitable for shorter services with a hymn or two.
• A5 stapled booklet (8 to 12 pages). A couple of folded sheets stapled through the spine. Room for the order, a few hymns, a photograph or two.
• A5 stapled booklet (16 to 24 pages). Multiple folded sheets stapled. This is what most funeral services with several hymns or readings use, and it takes photographs well throughout.

For run sizes, most orders of service are between 50 and 200 copies. That's firmly in digital printing territory. Our digital press produces excellent colour on the sort of silk-coated stock that gives photographs their depth, and turnaround from artwork sign-off can be as quick as a day.

Order of service printing on short notice

Funerals are almost always short-notice work. A death on a Monday might mean a service the following week, with orders of service needed on the day. That leaves very little time for artwork, proofing, and printing.

The way to make this less stressful is to keep the printing part simple. Once artwork is signed off, an order of service booklet at typical quantities is a same-day or next-day job for us. If the funeral director sends us artwork on Tuesday afternoon, we can usually have finished booklets ready for collection by Wednesday morning.

The longest part of the timeline is almost always the artwork stage: pulling together photographs, agreeing hymns and readings, checking spellings of names. Families sometimes want to include a tribute they've written themselves, which can arrive in stages. We'd rather wait for the family to be happy than push a proof through half-finished.

Working from a funeral director's file, or starting from scratch

Most of the orders of service we print come from a funeral director, arrive as a print-ready PDF, and go straight to press. That's the fastest route.

Some families want to design their own, or ask a friend or relative to. In that case, we're happy to help. Our in-house design team can lay out an order of service from your text, chosen photographs, and preferences on hymns and readings. Or if you want to lay it out yourself, we'll accept any common file format and check the artwork before we print, so the file works properly on our press.

If we're designing it from scratch, we usually ask three things:

• Photographs. High resolution ideally, but we can work with what you've got. We'll gently flag if a scan is too soft to print well.
• The order of the service, exactly as the officiant will read it.
• Preferences on tone. Some families want something formal, others want a splash of colour or a personal detail. We follow your lead.

Paper, cover, and finish

Standard orders of service look good on a silk-coated stock somewhere between 130gsm and 170gsm inside. For a heavier feel, we'll suggest a cover of 250gsm to 300gsm on the same silk, or an uncoated stock for a warmer, more matt feel. Uncoated has come back into favour recently, particularly for religious or quieter services.

Where the booklet is being stapled through the spine, we use a matching silver or bronze wire. For four-page folded cards, no binding is needed, they're simply creased.

A matt lamination on the cover is optional. It protects the cover from finger marks on the day and gives the piece a softer touch. We wouldn't lay it on for a modest four-page card, but for anything with a bit more substance it's usually the right call.

Welsh, English, and bilingual

An unusually large share of the orders of service we print in North Wales are in Welsh, English, or both. This is one of the areas where a local printer earns their keep. We know the conventions (mutations, capitalisation, place-name spellings) and we've printed enough of them to spot a wrong soft mutation before it hits the press.

If your service is in Welsh, or bilingual, we're happy to work in either. We'll never impose Welsh where it isn't wanted, and we won't stumble over it where it is.

What we do to make it easier

Most funeral printing happens against the clock, at a moment when the family already has enough to think about. What we try to do at our end is take the printing off the family's plate entirely. If we've got a workable PDF and a rough count, we'll:

• Check the file (bleed, colour, resolution, fonts) before print
• Proof back on request, or go straight to press if the funeral director has already approved
• Print, staple or fold, and box ready for collection or delivery

We've been doing this quietly at our works in Llangefni for many years. It doesn't need to be complicated.

When the time comes

If you're planning a funeral or memorial and need help with printing, please get in touch. We work quietly and quickly, most often through a funeral director, and are used to the timescales and sensitivity these jobs need.

We can print in English, Welsh, or bilingual, on the same day if the artwork is ready, from a folded card at 50 copies to a stapled booklet at 300 or more. Whatever the format, we'll take care of it properly. There's a full list of what we do under one roof if the order of service is part of a wider project, memorial cards, thank-you cards, tribute booklets, and so on.