Filling an urn is considered a symbolic ritual by many as it's seen as the final farewell for where your loved one is guided to their resting place. Filling an urn itself is fairly simple, you can do it yourself or have your funeral director help you.

Asking Your Funeral Director to Fill Your Urn

Ashes usually come from funeral homes inside a polyethylene bag, which is then placed in a temporary cardboard holder. The temporary container will have formal identification and depending on where you are from, it may also come with a cremation certificate. You can contact your funeral director at any time as to whether they can fill the urn for you, please note this may involve an additional cost.

Asking Your Crematorium to Fill Your Urn

You can also contact your crematorium and ask if they can help fill your urn, similarly to asking your funeral director, this also may involve an additional cost. You can also specify whether you would like your angel's ashes inside a container or a bag as some urns may not be the right size for a container.

Fill the Cremation Urn Yourself

To fill a cremation urn is relatively simple, however it's important to do some preparation when you begin. Firstly, place a large sheet of paper on a flat surface just in case you spill some of the ashes, this will make things easier to return them to the urn or the ashes bag. You can funnel the ashes directly into the urn, alternatively you can put the ash bag containing the ashes into the urn.

After placing your loved one’s ashes in the urn, we advise that you seal the lid so the urn is secure. Metal urns tend to have a threaded lid and are quite easy to seal, whilst wooden urns usually have a base that can be sealed tightly with screws. Ceramic urns are very beautiful, as they can be moulded into delicate and intricate designs. Given the nature of how ceramic urns are cast, they cannot be sealed with screws or have a threaded lid. So with most of our ceramic urns we would recommend that you apply a small amount of glue on the lip to ensure that it is securely closed. We also stock tubes of glue specifically designed for our ceramic urns within our store.