Cardboard or wicker coffin?

[annandale]

Did you choose a cardboard coffin? Would you recommend it? Wicker sounds really painful to carry and heavy as well?

Wicker, but at no point was it carried it was moved about on a kind of trolley thing. Far more dignified than it sounds.

Oh that sounds better. What made you decide on wicker?

We wanted to choose a cardboard coffin for a relative, but it was ridiculously more expensive than a traditional one.Whilst it was not to do with money, it seemed crazy to fuel an industry just trying to pull at heart strings.

Wicker is very pretty. You can weave flowers into the coffin and it all just looks more like a thing you'd like someone you loved to be in compared to a normal coffin. We had one for my grandma and liked it a lot.

I chose wicker for my DH, and actually went to a green coffin warehouse to buy direct. They did have cardboard, so you write stuff on the side, and it was the cheapest option.

We wove flowers from our garden into it.

The one we chose for DM was seagrass. It looked homely and comfortable and there wasn’t the creaking you can get with wicker.

I am sorry if you are going through a loss.

My mum wanted a cardboard coffin but the funeral place didn't offer it.

Someone said that a cardboard coffin was more expensive than a traditional one,,,, why was this,, seems very odd ?

I've just seen a woollen coffin, in fact a cardboard one with a woollen cover. Looks perfect but I bet it costs a ton. I'm looking at all the printed cardboard ones and just can't quite imagine it. Woollen feels better.

The OP mentioned that wicker coffins might be painful to carry. The men who carry for my local funeral director have special padding to place under their jackets for that reason . Seems to work.

Had to make this decision earlier in the week. Wicker was horribly expensive, £900 plus. Cardboard was no less expensive than a simple wood chip coffin but takes a lot more fuel to burn the body. Having the body put in the incinerator without a coffin is apparently not allowed in the UK. So In the end we've gone with the most ecofriendly wood coffin available in keeping with DF's wishes.
What I would like to have done is 'rent' a wicker coffin and dispose of the deceased in a cotton body bag. Sorry you are making these choices, it's hard.

My mum had a wicker coffin and it was carried by her adult grandsons without any problems at all. It had flowers woven into it and was just beautiful. We also had small wooden hearts that family members wrote messages onto. These were hung around the sides and sort of intermingled with the flowers. Sounds naff and I was a bit dubious beforehand but it was really lovely.

I've seen both wicker and cardboard with a wool cover used, the funeral directors in both cases were absolutely fine with the family's choices. The wool covered one looked beautifully cosy, a really lovely way to send someone off. The wicker coffin was lovely as well but the only drawback to that was that it creaked alarmingly when it was being carried. No risk of anything going wrong according to the funeral director but there were quite a lot of worried faces in the congregation.

The decision for the wicker coffin in our case was the deceased. He planned everything with his partner when he knew he was dying. It was beautiful, entwined with red roses just perfect.

I'm shocked at the prices quoted, and Aussies charge like wounded bulls. Try wholesalers.

coffincompany.co.uk

This might be a ridiculous question... but is there a weight limit for wicker coffins?

Sorry you are having to make this decision

Water hyacinth is beautiful, perhaps you could look at that? Also bamboo. Two immediate family members have had natural coffins (one water hyacinth, one wicker which didnt creak in our case) and they were perfect. I'd choose either of them, or wool for me.

That's strange.l re having to have a coffin for the cremation. I'm not sure it's correct. I had my DFs cremation done with him just in a muslin cloth. No coffin. But it wasn't done as any kind of service with us present. We did that afterwards with his ashes.

We chose a cardboard coffin for my dad but had a beautiful pall made to cover it which was printed with photos of special things in his life. It looked amazing.

My Nan had a wicker one and it was much nicer and much less macabre looking than a normal coffin.

Marl that's interesting. I did wonder if the funeral arranger was right but DSM wanted some sort of actual coffin.

My friend chose a woollen one when her DD died. It was lovely and as all her school friends were there it was recommended by the undertaker, as it looks less harsh than a wooden one. (I hadn't seen one before but know exactly what they meant)

I'm Sorry if you're suffering a bereavement.

We bought my Dad's coffin at comparethecoffin.com - Steven is a really useful person to talk to. There is so much can be done with wicker. I wish we'd gone for it. My brother was really worried - he thought it looked like a laundry basket!!!!! So we didn't. But they are beautiful.

I had a woven bamboo coffin for my dh. What I liked about it was that it was quite soft and pliable, not cold and hard like a wooden one. Bamboo is sustainable, and the coffins are sent from China one inside the other like Russian dolls to mitigate transport costs. I also had my dh transported to the crematorium in an electric hearse, which I think he would have definitely chosen for himself.

My parents both had willow coffins. Both were carried traditionally by bearers - three of whom were family members - and at no time was it suggested it would be a problem.