How To Create A Custom Cremation Urn

You can create your own custom cremation urn to honor the legacy of someone you love.

When looking for the perfect urn to commemorate your loved one, one thing you know for sure, is that you want it to honor the legacy of the life you lost. Creating a personalized urn is the perfect option when you want something beautiful and timeless while respecting the budget you are working with.

There is a wide range of high-quality handmade wooden cremation urns available that you can personalize with a photo, a poem, or anything else you want. 

So how do go about designing something when there are almost endless options to choose from?

How to order a custom cremation urn.

1. Choose which urn you’d like. Pay attention to the size (will you need a companion urn, a single urn, or a pet/child urn).
2. Which design would you like? The clean modern lines of the Contemporary Urn, or the traditional craftsmanship of the Signature urns? Or maybe you want to work with us to create a completely unique design for the shape of your urn. All of these options work for personalizing.
3. Pick the wood finish you’d like. Once you know which size you need and what style you want, which wood grain do you prefer? Maple Nail offers a range of beautiful and strong hardwoods that are sure to give you a solid, timeless, and beautiful urn.

How to customize a cremation urn

Now that you’ve chosen your urn, you need to give some thought to what you’d like to display on the urn you order.

At Maple Nail, we have a range of options to give you the look and feel that you desire for this important keepsake.

1. Silver or Brass Name Plate- The nameplate is traditional and formal. With up to 3 lines of text, you can do a name with dates and a short phrase. For a military urn, adding rank or years served can be a nice touch
2. Laser Engraving- This technique opens the door for almost endless creativity on your loved one’s urn. You can choose simply, with the name and dates in a font of your choosing.
   
   You can also go more elaborate with a photograph or picture that has significant meaning to the person you are honoring. Laser engraving is done with a computer and the design is burned into the piece. So you can use almost anything you can design on a computer.
   
   Sometimes having limitless options makes the process of designing the urn more difficult, so we’ve narrowed down our font offerings to the most popular fonts requested by our customers. But we can explore options beyond these fonts with a design you create yourself.
3. No personalization- You don’t expect to see this as an option in a post about creating a custom cremation urn, but for many of us, simple is best. Understated, stately, and respectful. Having a simple and beautiful urn displayed is a conversation starter as someone may ask who it is honoring. And these conversations can be wonderful in the grieving process.
   
   Choosing to have no modifications to your urn isn’t plain or generic, but rather is an intentional design decision, just as much as choosing to add words or pictures. And it’s a personal decision.

How your Urn is Made

Once you choose your size, style, wood, and customization options, your urn will be handcrafted in our Sheboygan, WI workshop. Made with refined woodworking skills and an eye for detail, your urn is made from start to finish in the hands of a master craftsman. Each step of the process is done carefully and with intention.

When we are working on orders, we are working on one at a time. So your name and story are on our minds as we design, create, pack, and ship your cremation Urn. You aren’t just a number to us, you chose Maple Nail to create this for you, and we will deliver something we are proud of.

How your Urn is Shipped

Once your Urn is complete, we carefully package it and will deliver it within 5-10 business days, depending on personalization and design changes. We strive to ship as quickly as possible without compromising on quality work.

Once your urn ships, you’ll get a UPS tracking number so you can follow your order as it travels from our workshop to your address. And we are always available if you have questions while you wait.

What to do when you receive your urn

Upon receipt of your package, please use care when opening the box. We will wrap your personalized urn carefully to avoid excessive movement in shipping. But it can be tempting to take a knife to cut the tape and open that box quickly.

But use care.

A blade can gouge or scrape the wood leaving permanent damage to your urn. So cut slowly, shallowly, and carefully.

Once you pull out the urn, you’ll notice 4 screws on the bottom. Remove those screws to open the urn. This is how you’ll put the cremation ashes inside. Once you replace the bottom piece and screws, your new urn is ready to display.

Creating a Personalized Wooden Cremation Urn

Choosing a custom urn can be challenging, but we are here to help you. We want you to have a timeless keepsake that you are proud to display. We’re more than happy to work with you to create a piece that honors the legacy and personality of the one you are remembering. And we are blessed when chosen to be a part of this important process.

Thank you.