It was sad to be here, as you would expect. My feelings aside, I was quite impressed by the facilities here. If a religious farewell is not desired, this was a respectful way to say goodbye. The staff were all helpful and discrete. The service took place in a homely room that had the feel of a lounge room and then refreshments were served in an adjoining Tea Room. There is parking on site. Having arrived early I was then parked in by other mourners, so when my friends and I were ready to leave we had to canvass the crowd for the culprits. read more

White Lady Funerals - Floral gifts - Funeral Services & Cemeteries Near Me - Pennant Hills, NSW

I chose White Lady Funerals (Rockdale) only because I was led to believe that they COVER EVERYTHING for clueless newbies. A White Lady Funerals director arrives promptly to my home. She helps me complete all their necessary legal paperwork, for the cremation, funeral service, administrative fees and death certificate, during that meeting. When I enquired about funeral service cards, she replied: "you will have to wait for the priest to discuss your plans". I also mentioned that I wanted to book a classy luncheon after the funeral but stipulated that it must be near the service because too many guests lived far away, did not know the area, or were not physically able to walk far. I also requested that I wanted some professional photos of the service. Two days before the scheduled funeral, the officiating priest visits my home. Before he leaves, he asked me about my funeral cards; I answered that White Lady funerals would take care of all that. The priest corrected me by advising: "no dear, that is something you will have to do". I call White Lady Funerals to ask for help in creating and printing funeral cards; instead the director responds that it is my responsibility, then she mentions that she too had to make her own cards when planning a funeral for one of her own deceased family members. I also discovered that White Lady Funerals do not even offer their customers an online DIY funeral card template (unlike other competitors)! Due to my not being computer savvy, and not being able to find any company that could design and print funeral cards at short notice, I had to forgo two day's sleep to create my own funeral service cards (plus write a eulogy!). On the day before the funeral I frantically visited OfficeWorks via taxi, then discovered that OfficeWorks do not offer borderless printing and their staff couldn't format my card to print properly (Microsoft Word file). Unfortunately, I had to use my bubblejet printer, in the middle of the night, to print amateurish cards! Also, two days before the service, my brother called me to request that I ask White Lady Funerals if we could bring any food or drinks to the luncheon. Consequently, I rang White Lady Funerals to ask why I had not yet received confirmation of the luncheon. To my horror, I found out that White Lady Funerals had not booked any catering service or function room. However, White Lady Funerals eventually rectified the situation by booking catering and a function room on the memorial park grounds, a few minutes walking distance from the funeral service. On the day of the funeral, I felt ashamed that the function room was swarming with flies feasting on the food platters. The food looked alright but the function room was small with hardly any room to move around (luckily no guest required a wheelchair!), the tables were small and ugly (like white school tables, with no tablecloths or vases, and organized into many segregated rows like an exam setup), and the seats were black plastic with holes (suitable for a beach party). Looking back on this, I wish White Lady Funerals had taken the time to advise me of various classy venues for the luncheon or even suggested hiring a minibus to avoid unwanted insects as guests (many competitors provide their own elegant function rooms!) I would also have preferred to have seen my father's coffin being delivered into the flames, just to help with family's grieving/closure. I was disappointed at the end of the service, and I was holding up the next funeral service, stupidly waiting for my father's cremation to happen! I like that White Lady Funerals offer live steaming but they should have recommended for a bilingual service so that my whole family overseas could understand the funeral proceedings . The funeral director had informed me that the service would only be 45 minutes, so I didn't think that a bilingual service would have been possible without severely affecting the quality of the service or allowing adequate time for eulogy/photo tributes. On the day of the funeral, I asked a White Lady Funerals pall-bearer on why there was no photographer, she mentioned that: "guests normally would not feel comfortable seeing strangers photographing". Luckily, I had brought my own camera to the service! The White Lady Funeral employees were all polite but I do NOT think they were remarkably comforting or displaying that special "woman's understanding" to warrant premium $$$$$. [P.S. 12 day's after the funeral, I call them only to discover that my father was cremated 10 day's ago!] read more