Who Can Make a Funeral Slideshow for Me?
You do not have to build it yourself. There are five realistic ways to have someone else make a memorial slideshow: the funeral home, a memorial slideshow service, a freelancer on Fiverr or Upwork, a local video production company, or a relative who is good with computers. Most families choose between the first two, and the honest answer is that the right one depends on how many photographs you have, how much you want to be asked about, and how close the service is.
This guide is written for the person holding the phone at nine at night with a folder of photographs and no idea who to send them to. If you would rather make it yourself after all, how to make a funeral slideshow walks through it, and memorial slideshow makers compared covers the tools.
The five options, side by side
| Who | Typical cost | What you do | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| The funeral home | Often included, or a modest add-on fee | Hand over a set number of photos | It is already in the arrangement and you have under 50 photographs |
| A memorial slideshow service | Low hundreds. Embrance is a flat $349 | Send photographs and a date | You have a lot of photographs, or you want it off your plate entirely |
| Fiverr or Upwork freelancer | Very cheap to several hundred | Vet the person, write the brief, manage revisions | You have time to choose well and a clear idea of what you want |
| Video production company | The most expensive option | Attend a briefing, review cuts | There is a budget and the film is the centerpiece |
| A relative who is good with computers | Free | Gather photographs, then wait | Someone has genuinely offered and has the week free |
The funeral home
Most funeral homes will make a slideshow, and for a lot of families that is the right answer because it is already part of what you are arranging. A director puts it together between other duties, which shapes the trade-offs: usually a capped number of photographs, a set template, and one round of changes rather than open revisions.
Three questions settle whether it is enough for you.
- How many photographs? If the cap is 40 and you have 200, you are about to spend an evening choosing which grandchildren do not appear.
- How many rounds of changes? The first version is almost never right, and the wrong photograph in the wrong place is the thing families remember.
- Do I get the file to keep? Ask for the MP4, not only a screen at the service. You will want it afterwards more than you expect.
If the answers are fine, use them. There is no prize for making this harder.
A memorial slideshow service
This is a service that does only this. You send photographs and the service date, and the film comes back built. The reason families choose it over the funeral home is usually volume: a service that builds these all week is not troubled by 250 photographs, photographs that are pictures of prints, or a family scattered across four states.
For our done-for-you tier the flat price is $349 and it covers every photograph framed by hand, age order if you ask, your music, your words on the opening and closing slides, and changes until it feels right. You get a full HD file that plays anywhere, plus a page to watch it on with a QR code for the program, and one private link the whole family can send photographs to. We ask for your service date in the first message and work to it, and if it is too tight to do properly we say so straight away rather than let you find out late.
What it is not: it is not the cheapest option, and it is not the right one if you have twenty photographs and an afternoon free.
Have us make it for you
Send your photographs and your service date. We build the whole film, every photograph framed by hand, and keep working until it feels right. A flat $349.
A freelancer on Fiverr or Upwork
There are good editors on both, and the price range is enormous, from a few tens of dollars to several hundred. The variable is not the platform, it is the person. What you are taking on is the vetting: reading reviews, reading the fine print on revisions, and writing a brief that explains something you should not have to explain this week.
If you go this way, say three things in the first message: the number of photographs, that some are photographs of prints, and the date it must be finished. A freelancer who quotes for 30 digital files and receives 180 phone photographs of album pages will either renegotiate or rush, and both happen late.
A local video production company
The most expensive route, and priced for commercial work rather than a funeral timeline. It makes sense when the film is the centerpiece of the day and there is budget for it. For most families it is more process than the week can hold.
A relative who is good with computers
This works when someone has genuinely offered and has the week clear. It goes wrong in a specific way, which is worth naming: the offer is made warmly on the Monday, the photographs arrive slowly, and by Thursday the person who offered is quietly panicking and nobody wants to ask. If you take the offer, agree a checkpoint two days before the service, so there is still time to hand it to someone else.
What actually costs you the days
Whoever builds it, the slow part is not the building. It is waiting on photographs from relatives. A service that gives you one link to pass around the family removes the part where you chase seven people individually and receive the same photograph three times.
Send that link the hour you get it, and say a number and a date in the message: "any photographs of Dad by Thursday, we have about 40 so far". A vague ask gets a vague response, and the response arrives on Friday.
For more on choosing and ordering the photographs themselves, see how to sort photos for a memorial slideshow and who to include in a memorial slideshow. For the music, funeral slideshow songs has more than seventy, organized by mood.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can make a funeral slideshow for me?
There are five realistic options. The funeral home, which often includes a basic slideshow or charges a small fee for one. A memorial slideshow service, which is built for exactly this and works to your service date. A freelancer on Fiverr or Upwork, where price and quality both vary widely. A local video production company, which is the most expensive and rarely set up for a funeral timeline. Or a relative or friend who is good with computers. If you want it handled end to end by people who do only this, a memorial slideshow service is the closest fit.
How much does it cost to have someone make a memorial slideshow?
A funeral home slideshow is often included in a service package or added for a modest fee, usually with a fixed photo count. A dedicated memorial slideshow service sits in the low hundreds; Embrance charges a flat $349 with unlimited changes. Freelancers on Fiverr and Upwork range from very cheap to several hundred dollars depending on the person. A local video production company is normally the most expensive option, because it is priced for commercial work.
What do I have to send if someone else makes it?
Photographs, the name and dates, and your service date. That is the whole obligation. A good service gives you one link that the rest of the family can also use, so you are not the person collecting every photo by text message. Music is optional; most services have a library of service-appropriate tracks if you do not have a song in mind.
Will the funeral home make the slideshow for me?
Most will, and for many families that is the right answer because it is already part of the arrangement. The trade-offs are usually a capped number of photographs, a set template, and limited revisions, because a director is building it between other duties. Ask three questions before you decide: how many photographs, how many rounds of changes, and whether you get a copy of the file to keep.
Can someone make a memorial slideshow from printed photos?
Yes. You do not need a scanner. Photograph the prints with your phone, straight from the album, and send those. A service that frames every photograph by hand can deal with a page edge, an album border or a slight angle. If you are handing a box of prints to a freelancer instead, ask first whether they handle photographed prints, because many quote only for digital files.
Is it too late to have someone make one?
Usually not. Say your service date in the first message rather than at the end. A service that does this regularly will either commit to that date or tell you straight away that it is too tight, which is the answer you need while there is still time to ask someone else. The thing that costs days is not the building, it is waiting on photographs from relatives, so send the family link the same hour you get it.
Will it play on the screen at the funeral home?
Ask for a full HD MP4 file, which plays on televisions, projectors, laptops and phones. Hand it over on a USB drive or send the venue the file ahead of the day. A watch page with a link is useful for relatives who cannot travel, but bring the file too, because venue wifi is not something to depend on.