A graveside-only service — a short committal at the burial plot with no viewing or chapel gathering — can cost $1,885. The same provider charges $3,875 for a traditional funeral with viewing and chapel ceremony, according to Precious Memories Funeral Home on its current burial-packages page. Families often choose it to cut costs and keep the day short. The practical task is to separate funeral-home charges from cemetery charges before you sign.
Table of Contents
- What Do You Skip Without the Chapel?
- What Does a Graveside-Only Package Still Cover?
- What Will the Cemetery Charge Separately?
- How Do You Compare Prices Without a Chapel Package?
- Can You Also Avoid Embalming?
What Do You Skip Without the Chapel?
Skipping the chapel removes charges for use of facilities and staff for viewing and ceremony. Those are separate line items on an itemized price list. Advantage Funeral & Cremation Services uses that structure in its GPL effective Jan.
21, 2026. Advantage lists graveside equipment and staff at $145, versus $300 for a chapel funeral service. The gap shows where chapel-free savings come from.
What Does a Graveside-Only Package Still Cover?
Precious Memories Funeral Home bundles transfer of remains, basic staff services, embalming, dressing and casketing, and graveside supervision in its $1,885 30-minute graveside package. No viewing time and no chapel ceremony are included. The traditional package at $3,875 adds those chapel elements.
The NFDA 2023 Member General Price List Study, reported via FuneralVision, sets the national median at $8,300 for a funeral with viewing and burial. The same study sets $9,995 when a vault is included, detailed on FuneralVision's report on rising funeral costs. A graveside-only package is therefore often far below the full-service median.
What Will the Cemetery Charge Separately?
PartingPoint's guide summarizing NFDA figures, reviewed Sept. 4, 2026, notes those medians exclude cemetery interment, monuments or markers, and cash advances. A graveside service still leaves a separate cemetery bill. Families should budget funeral-home and cemetery costs as two bills.
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Lowell Cemetery lists a single grave at $1,500 and adult weekday opening at $1,500 per opening. It adds a $200 vault service charge, shown on its burial-lots page. Those fees are separate from funeral-home fees. A vault here means the outer burial container, often required by the cemetery.
How Do You Compare Prices Without a Chapel Package?
Federal law requires funeral homes to give in-person shoppers a take-home General Price List. The list must price graveside-service equipment and staff separately. The Federal Trade Commission explains that rule on its Funeral Industry Practices Rule page.
That separate line lets you compare chapel-free options across providers. Use the list to build an apples-to-apples total: Add the two written totals before you choose. Do not accept a single verbal total that blends both bills.
- ask for the GPL to keep and find the graveside-service line
- ask for transfer, dressing and casketing, and graveside supervision in writing
- ask the cemetery for grave, opening, and vault fees in writing
Can You Also Avoid Embalming?
Embalming, chemical preservation of the body, is often avoidable without a viewing. New Tacoma Cemeteries Funeral Home states customers may choose direct cremation or immediate burial to avoid paying for embalming.
Immediate burial means burial without prior viewing or ceremony. If a graveside package bundles embalming, ask for the immediate-burial price without it. Ask for that price in writing before you accept a package that includes embalming.
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