The Top 3 FAQ About Our Urns for Ashes

Product descriptions don’t always communicate all the important details, so below are our top 3 FAQ about our urns for ashes. We will update this regularly!

1) The urn I like says to contact Modern Memorials about personalization. What does this mean and can my urn be personalized or engraved?

This is a great question and a feature we are going to improve on our website. If the urn you’ve selected does not have an automatic personalization option, it means that laser engraving may not be the best option for that urn and we should talk about how we can personalize it for you.

For example, our Italian urns have intricate designs and engraving onto the urn may damage the overall look. We’ve created stainless steel, brass and aluminum nameplates with our customers’ loved ones’ names, dates and even a short quotation – with an adhesive that can attach to the urn. The prices for nameplates range from $50-$100.

We can’t engrave on our raku, ceramic or glass cremation urns but a nameplate may work with those as well. Just contact us at help@modernmemorials.com and we can take care of all of your questions as well as personalize a nameplate for you.

To sum up:

• If your urn does not have an automatic personalization option, we will probably recommend a nameplate, which we can design for you for an additional $50-100 (depending on the amount of text and material).
  

2) What size urn do I need? If my loved one’s weight was a little more than the cubic inches of the urn I like, will the ashes not fit in the urn?

The rule of thumb to determine what size cremation urn you need is 1 cubic inch of the urn = 1 pound before cremation. So if your loved weighed 150 pounds before cremation, you would need an urn that is 150 cubic inches or more. There are other variables that contribute to this – different cremation practices and your loved one’s build for example, factor in. We are happy to discuss this with you to make sure the urn you like is the correct size.

Many of our keepsake urns can also be great pet urns, but make sure you take note of the size. For example, our modern Small Round Metal Keepsake Urn is only 5 cubic inches, so it is probably too small to be a cat or dog urn. 

Our Italian urn keepsakes are 28-30 cubic inches, so are great small pet urns. Our Raku Ceramic keepsakes are 115 cubic inches, and are beautiful dog urns for ashes.

To sum up:

• Use the 1:1 ratio (cubic inches/pounds of loved one before cremation) to determine the size you need.
• Some keepsakes are too small for even pet urns.
  

3) Do you provide instructions on how to open the urn? How difficult is it to transfer to ashes to an urn? Will the temporary urn container fit in most of your urns?

We provide helpful, detailed instructions for our biodegradable urns and cremation jewelry urns. The remaining urns in our collection either open like a box on the top or via screws on the bottom.

Most of the time, the family receives the created remains from the crematory in a plastic, rectangular-shaped temporary urn. The approximate dimensions for this container are 8” tall x 4” deep x 6” wide. It opens from the top, and the ashes are inside the container in a sealed plastic bag. To transfer to ashes, you can simply open the temporary container and place the sealed bag inside into your chosen cremation urn.

Most of our adult cremation urns are designed to hold the ashes in the sealed bag. Some of our urns are sized to hold the temporary container as well.

These include:

• Our Italian Prisms (not Deluxe). Comes in variety of colors and patterns.
• Our “Art Deco” Wood Urns. Comes in variety of finishes.
• Our “Glass Fusion” Glass Urns. Comes in different colors.

• It’s easy to transfer the ashes to the urn of your choosing. Simply place the sealed bag inside the temporary container into the permanent urn.
• Some of our urns are sized to hold the temporary container.
• We provide detailed instructions for biodegradable urns and cremation jewelry.

Questions? Please contact us, we’d love to hear from you!