No longer hung up on funeral association

INDIANAPOLIS - Danessa Molinder entered the courtyard wearing a white dress and matching veil. Her groom waited at the other end, in front of decorative doors and lattice work that blocked the view of a nearby cemetery with 73,000 graves.

Molinder's June wedding was one of more than 50 that will be hosted this year at a $10 million event center run by the Washington Park East Cemetery Association in Indianapolis. The somewhat ironically named Community Life Center sits on cemetery land near a funeral home and also has hosted a prom, community banquets and even breakfasts with Santa.

"It's such a beautiful building," Molinder said. "That's what really drew us to it."

Funeral homes aren't just for funerals anymore. Businesses that once focused almost entirely on honoring the dead are now open to an array of events as they seek to add revenue.

Cemetery and funeral home operators say they're being squeezed as more people favor simpler, less expensive funeral services. Their businesses also are being pressured by the growing popularity of cremations, which can bring in less than half the revenue of a traditional casket burial.

Cremations are expected to become the most common form of body disposition nationally in a few years, according to the Cremation Association of North America.

Funeral home operators also say there's a need in their communities for locations that can host weddings or other big events, and people are no longer hung up on their main business.

Declining membership in churches and civic organizations also may be boosting demand for nontraditional venues for weddings and receptions.

As a result, funeral homes and cemeteries nationwide have been marketing their properties for an array of uses. Nearly 10 percent of 280 respondents to a National Funeral Directors Association survey last year said they built a community center to host other events. That's up from 6 percent in 2011.

"As a business, we need to find ways to keep growing," said Bruce Buchanan, a member of the Indianapolis cemetery association's board and owner of a funeral home business.

Younger generations are growing up without the same stigma toward death that their parents and grandparents had, said Mike Nicodemus, a vice president with the National Funeral Directors Association.

"People aren't as religious as they once were ... and their attitudes toward death are changing," he said. "Funeral homes were seen for one reason: To have a funeral. Now they're being used for all kinds of things."

That versatility might be appealing to couples who need a place to host their big day but aren't affiliated with a religion, said Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion professor.

He said that theory comes with a caveat: The site should have some separation between the wedding and funeral businesses, because there's a cultural taboo against mixing death too closely with weddings, which often are about birth and the starting of families.

Despite their growing openness to holding various events, funeral directors and cemetery executives say they haven't replaced their main business.

Matt Linn built a multi-use facility in 2008 after a flood damaged his funeral home. His Cedar Rapids, Iowa, business now runs three wedding venues and two locations that can host weddings and funerals. It also manages a golf course and runs a farmer's market. Non-funeral related events still amount to only about 20 percent of total revenue for Linn's business.