At 11:30 PM on a Tuesday, Sarah Chen sat at her dining room table in Minneapolis, surrounded by paper scraps, glue sticks, and three different printers that kept jamming. Her father had passed away on Sunday, the funeral was Thursday morning, and she'd spent the entire day trying to make 150 funeral programs by hand. She had ink on her fingers, a crick in her neck, and only twelve decent programs.
"I thought I was being thoughtful," Sarah told me six months later. "Dad always said I was creative, so I figured I should make something special for him. I had no idea what I was getting myself into."
Sarah isn't alone. Every week, I hear from families who started making funeral programs themselves, thinking it would be more personal or save money. Most of them end up stressed, exhausted, and wondering why they didn't just find an easier way.
When "Doing It Yourself" Becomes Doing Too Much
Sarah's original plan sounded reasonable enough. She'd create a simple bifold program using Microsoft Word, print from home, and add decorative touches. Her dad loved gardening, so she bought special paper with a subtle floral border and planned to include his favorite Bible verse.
The problems started immediately.
First, the photos. Sarah spent two hours scanning old pictures, only to discover they looked pixelated when printed. Then she tried taking photos of the pictures with her phone, which somehow made them look worse. Her brother texted three images from his phone, but they were all different sizes and wouldn't line up properly on the page.
"I must have printed fifty test pages just trying to get the photos to look right," Sarah said. "My home printer started running out of ink, so I drove to Office Depot at 9 PM to buy new cartridges. That's when I realized the special paper I bought didn't fit through my printer correctly."
By Wednesday morning, Sarah had managed to create a decent template in Word, but it took her about six minutes to print, fold, and assemble each program. At that rate, she needed fifteen hours just for the printing and folding. Her sister offered to help, but lived in Chicago and couldn't get there until Wednesday evening.
The math was brutal. One hundred fifty programs × 6 minutes each = 15 hours of work, plus all Sarah already spent on design and photo editing. And that assumed nothing else went wrong.
Where the DIY Dream Falls Apart
Sarah's experience hits all the common pain points that families run into when they try to create funeral programs from scratch:
Photo Quality Issues: Most people don't have high-resolution scans of family photos, and phone pictures of old photos rarely print well. Professional programs need images at 300 DPI, but most families don't know this until they see blurry results.
Design Software Learning Curve: Word and similar programs aren't for creating folded programs. Getting text and images to align properly across multiple pages can take hours, especially if you've never done it before.
Printing Complications: Home printers struggle with heavier paper, specialty papers, or large print jobs. Many families discover too late that their printer can't handle the paper they bought, or that it starts producing streaky prints halfway through the job.
Time Pressure: Funerals don't wait for your learning curve. Sarah had less than four days to learn design software, source materials, and produce 150 finished programs while handling other funeral arrangements.
The emotional toll makes everything more complicated. "I kept thinking I was letting Dad down if I couldn't make something beautiful," Sarah said. "But I was so tired and stressed that I couldn't think straight. I made the same formatting mistakes over and over."
What Sarah Wishes She'd Known Earlier
Three months after her dad's funeral, Sarah helped plan memorial services for her aunt. This time, she took a completely different approach.
"I found an online service that had templates specifically for funeral programs," she said. "I uploaded Dad's photo, typed in the text, and had a proof ready in about twenty minutes. The whole thing cost me forty-five dollars for 150 programs, shipped to my door in two days."
The online service handled photo editing, professional printing on quality paper, and even offered rush delivery. Sarah spent thirty minutes customizing the template instead of twelve hours fighting with Word and her home printer.
"The programs looked better than what I made by hand, and I had time to focus on writing Dad's eulogy instead of wrestling with paper jams," she said.
Sarah used a simple online template for her aunt's service, customized it with family photos, and had the programs printed and delivered within 48 hours. The whole process took less than an hour of her time and cost about the same as buying specialty paper and ink cartridges.
The Real Cost of DIY
When Sarah added up her expenses from the handmade approach, the numbers were eye-opening:
- Specialty paper: $35
- Ink cartridges: $60
- Gas for multiple store trips: $12
- Time spent: 15+ hours
She spent over $100 and nearly two full days creating programs that looked less professional than she could have ordered online for half the cost.
"I thought I was saving money and being more personal," Sarah said. "But I actually spent more and turned one of the hardest weeks of my life into something even more stressful."
Making It Simple When Everything Feels Hard
If you're facing this decision right now, here's what I'd tell you: there's nothing impersonal about using a template service. You're still choosing the photos, writing the content, and deciding how to honor your loved one. You're just not fighting with printers at midnight.
Look for services that let you customize templates with photos and text. Many offer 24 to 48-hour printing and shipping, so you don't have to worry about timing. The money you save on supplies and the time you save on production can go toward things that matter more during this difficult time.
Sarah perfectly said, "Dad wouldn't have cared whether I made his programs by hand or ordered them online. He would have cared that I cared for myself and our family during a hard time. Sometimes the most loving thing you can do is make your life a little easier."