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  Personalising your service
  Discover the many ways we can help you personalise a funeral.
  
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Personalising your service

Home / Arrange a funeral / How we help / Personalising your service

Create a fitting farewell for your loved one that honours their individuality

There are many ways to personalise your loved one’s funeral service, from choosing who to lead it through to your choice of music. We can guide you through all the options to create a funeral that’s as unique as your loved one.

Personalising your service Choosing who to lead_2048x1365

Choosing who to lead the service

If your loved one was religious, choosing a minister to lead their funeral service makes sense – especially if the minister was known to them, or they had a personal connection to their local church. You can also choose a celebrant, who can include religious elements in the service, like prayers and readings. Or they can ensure the service is wholly non-religious. We have a range of celebrants we recommend, if needed. For a personal touch, you can even ask family or friends to lead the service.

Options to consider for the service

Flowers

Flowers are a beautiful way to show affection. We can help coordinate bouquets or other floral arrangements, or you can use your own florist.

Music

Honour your loved one through the music of your – or their – choice. We can even arrange live music by organists or pipers.

Catering

If you’d like to have refreshments after the funeral service, we can organise this for you through our experienced in-house caterers, Gattings.

Service sheets

Printed service sheets include details such as hymns, readings, tributes and messages of thanks and help to create a lovely, personal service.

Capturing shared memories

Photos and video

Recording the service

Live streaming

Photos and video

A beautiful part of a funeral is hearing and seeing a wonderful range of memories about your loved one. We encourage you and your family and friends to include photos and video of your loved one in the service – we can help you put together multi-media presentations that celebrate your loved one’s life.

Recording the service

If family and friends can’t attend the service or you’d like to keep a permanent record of it, you can now record your loved one’s funeral. We can arrange a professional recording company to capture all the memories and stories that people share about your loved one.

Live streaming

Sometimes, people can’t attend a funeral, especially if they’re based overseas. For absent family and friends, we can webcast the funeral on the internet, so they can see it happening. This is available at our three chapels in Mt Eden, Henderson and Pakuranga. We can also bring in a company to do live streaming at any of our other funeral homes.

Make a beautiful final journey

Our fleet includes three custom-built Cadillac Premier hearses, two of which were first used at Sir Edmund Hillary’s state funeral. These state-of-the-art vehicles were built in America by Eagle Coach Company who are known for building the highest quality hearses in the industry. Rounding out our fleet is a classic 1964 Cadillac, a 1969 Cadillac, a Ford Falcon and a Mercedes Benz hearse. We’re looking forward to welcoming a 1946 Hudson to our fleet soon.

Davis 0 - Bertha

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Davis 0 - Bertha

Our 1964 classic Caddilac hearse is a truly beautiful vehicle. With its whitewall tires, tail fins and leather interior it really emulates, class, tradition, and quality.

Davis 1

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Davis 1

One of our three, modern Cadillac hearses. Davis 1 is a beautiful example of what a high-quality hearse should look like.

Davis 2

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Davis 2

The second in our fleet of modern Cadillac hearses, Davis 2 has subtle differences from our other modern Caddilac hearses Davis 1 and Davis 2, with the main difference being in the type of mag wheels that have been fitted to the vehicle.

Davis 3

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Davis 3

One of our three, modern Cadillac Hearses. This hearse was first used in Sir Edmund Hillary’s state funeral. This is the hearse will always be special to us at Davis for this reason.

Davis 4

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Davis 4

Davis 4, is our only right-hand drive hearse in the fleet. In Navy blue, it allows an option for families that would like something a bit more understated than our Cadillac’s or Mercedes options available. The large window at the rear still allows for great visibility of the casket.

Davis 8

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Davis 8

German innovation has rarely looked this good. Davis 8 is a beautiful Mercedes hearse, fondly referred to as The Shark for its swooping lines. The large windows at the rear allow for great visibility of the casket. This is your newest and most modern vehicle currently in our fleet.

Victoria

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Victoria

Victoria, is our 1969 Caddilac Hearse. The second in our fleet of classic hearses, she is known for her prominent grill, that seems to wrap around the car, with the way the indicators have been designed. A true classic, with its blue interior, Victoria can make any day that extra bit special.

Handcrafted memorial books

A memorial book is a beautiful and permanent memento of your loved one’s life. Provide us with some photos, tributes, obituary notices or any other details you’d like included, and we’ll turn it in a high quality personalised book. Handcrafted and beautifully presented, it represents a lasting record of family and friends that attended the funeral.

We're with you every step of the way

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Kamilla Andersson

Pakuranga

"I just wanted to thank you personally for the patience and care you showed our mum and family at such a sad time. I truly felt supported and was thrilled with the beautiful send-off we shared with mum"

Wally Mearns

Howick

"On behalf of the Mearns family, I wish to convey our grateful thanks to Davis Funeral Services for your most professional and caring service you provided during the recent death of my Wife Shirley"

Errol Farrington

"I must thank all at Davis Funerals for the professionalism shown to us throughout the whole venture. We were really impressed with the warmth and friendliness shown to us."

The Philson Family

"We so appreciated all the care you took of us over a difficult time. You went above and beyond for us. We felt so well looked after and you made the process so much more personal"