Memorial Board: Ideas and How to Guide

Full of memories, remembering beautiful well-lived life stories. Memorial board will help people to honor the deceased in a meaningful way.

Are you looking to create a memorial board? This article will guide you through the process of preparing one. Let’s jump right in.

What Is a Memorial Board?

Memorial Board is a display of a loved one’s life story through media such as photos and other objects.

It is a meaningful tribute and remembrance that is great to have at the funeral, memorial service, or a celebration of life events.

Why do People create a memorial board?

People create a memorial board as a way to honor their loved ones.

The goal of a memory board is to honor the life of the person who passed away. It is often decorated to portray the personality of the people being honored.

Having a memorial board at a funeral or memorial service will instantly help the guest to appreciate and remember their loved one from seeing photos displayed on it. 

In short, memorial boards help people to honor the lost loved one’s life more meaningfully.

How do you make a Memorial board?

Creating a photo memorial board for funerals on your own is not difficult! Here are the steps on how to create a meaningful memorial board:

Visualize The Storytelling Angle

First, at its core, a memorial board is a representation of one’s life story. You will have a board as the blank canvas and you are free to include the things that are best to portray the meaningful life of the deceased.

How would you like to retell their life story? Is it through key life events? A timeline-like display starting from their childhood moments to a successful musician at the end of his life?

Or will a memorial board that displays their biggest passion project work be the best portrayal of your loved one’s life?

Having an idea of how you would like to do the “storytelling” through the memorial board will surely provide you with a direction on how to organize your board meaningfully!

If you find the need of using multiple boards to cover your loved one’s various important aspects of their life, such as their friendship and community, their passion, their achievements, and their goofy humor taste, go ahead!

There’s nothing limiting your memorial board creation except the time needed to create it, and the content material (such as photos and other things) to display your loved one’s life story.

Look on Pinterest for design ideas

There are plenty of board design ideas on Pinterest. Surf through Pinterest to find the best look for your loved one’s memorial board.

Knowing the storytelling angle, plus a Pinterest reference as the desired design look of the board will help you to save time when organizing your board. 

You now know exactly what materials you need to create your memorial board!

Invite Others to Help

One of the biggest constraints to the project is usually time. There are a lot of things to prepare when a loved one passed away, which can put time pressure on the families doing the funeral or memorial preparations. 

Consider Inviting family and your loved one’s close friends to help with the memorial board. They can help to gather photos, decoration materials, or provide ideas on how to share a certain important memory of your loved ones!

With helps from others, you might be able to finish the board in a couple of hours instead of days.

Gather Photos and Mementos

Reach out to your loved one’s friends to see if they have photos of your loved one to share. Let them know you are creating a memorial board, and ask them to send any photos they have of the deceased.

Sometimes they could have your loved one’s unique silly photo on their phone that perfectly portrays your loved one’s goofiness. The key is to just gather all the memories of your loved one out there.

Don’t stop at photos! If there are any other favorite objects of your loved ones that are out there, ask them to send them to you as well!

You can utilize social media for this part to make spreading the request message faster. People can also share the picture directly to your social media and it will be easy for you to download and save the image for further printing needs.

Alright. Thanks for lending an ear. Let’s get back to reading!

Organize photos

Now once you have gathered all the necessary content material like photos and other mementos, it’s time to organize it into the board.

Remember, especially important if you are using glue, do not immediately stick a picture to a board on the first try. Just lay it out on the board. Keep doing so until you complete putting all the pictures and mementos that you have selected on the board.

The reason for doing this is that oftentimes after reviewing the whole board, there will be things that we would like to adjust. Maybe a slight shift of position or angles.

Or perhaps a switch of objects is necessary because the color tone doesn’t match.

It is best to lay it out on the board first, and then take a helicopter view of it to review it thoroughly and decide whether or not you’re satisfied with the final result.

Naming the photos or mementos

A label on a photo would help to give the viewer understanding of why it is important to your loved one.

For example, you are including a picture of your loved one favorite mountain where he used to go every weekend to set his own campsite as his relaxation time.

You could label it with a post-it that writes: “John’s favorite mountain for camping. He said it’s so serene and tranquil!”

Notes and labels to name an event will add context and provide more meaning to the memories displayed on the board.

Finalize the board

When you are happy after the final review of the fully laid out board, you can start affixing all the items to the board. 

To mark the position of placing, you can use pencils and mark thinly around the item’s designated location. You can then put all the to-be-glued items aside, and then start gluing them one by one. 

Doing so will help you to have a freed-up board that is not full of items. It is easier to do so rather than sticking a picture with having to worry not to ruin the other item’s positions that have been laid out but not glued yet. 

Protect and Bring it up! 

Your memorial board is all set! Now you just need to transport it to your destination safely.

You might want to cover it with plastic wrap or other layers that can protect the content on the memorial board.

Lay the board flat for best results while bringing it up to the funeral or memorial event.

What do you write on a photo memorial board for funerals?

First and foremost, write your loved one’s name, death of birth, and date of death. Adding an “in memory” to the name is also common to write about on a memorial board.

As a remembrance tribute, write things that remember your loved one’s life meaningfully.

Your loved one’s life story, key life events, precious memories, important friendship, hobbies, or special life achievements are all wonderful things to be written about your loved one on the memorial board.

How long will it take to create a Memorial board?

Creating a memorial board by yourself will take 2 -3 days at most. 

The first and second days will mostly be used for finding idea inspiration, buying the necessary materials, and gathering (plus printing) the photos to be included in the memorial board.

Building and organizing the memorial board can usually be done in one day’s work. With a help of a friend, you can finish the whole board creation process in 2 days.

Online Memorial Website as an Alternative

Memorial boards are to be seen up close. However, especially during and after the pandemic, traveling has been restricted a lot. Many people can’t attend a funeral or a memorial service.

If you have lost relatives and families that are unable to attend your loved one’s funeral or memorial service, an online memorial website might serve you better than a memorial board.

It serves almost the same purpose as a memorial board in which you can share your loved one’s life story, and upload pictures of it.

You can also invite families to share their memories of your loved one by posting pictures on the page. 

End of Article

Creating a memory board is a journey in itself. It is your show of love and appreciation to the deceased.

There’s no right or wrong way to create a memory board. As long as it is portraying your loved one’s life in a meaningful way, it is a good memorial board! If you are the person who wanted to create one, you must be the best person to do the project already.

Explore your creativity and follow what your heart says. Your memorial board will be beautiful!