A celebration of life video
More and more families are choosing a celebration of life over a traditional funeral - and the video that fits it is a different thing entirely. Less mourning, more the person: how they were, what they'd say, why everyone in the room is smiling through it.
How it differs from a memorial video
The material is the same - photos, memories, a voice telling their story. What changes is the register. A memorial video sits with the loss. A celebration of life video sits with the life: their humour, their stubbornness, the thing they always said, the version of them everyone recognises.
That difference lives mostly in the words. Write about them the way you'd talk about them at the reception rather than at the graveside, and the narration follows - warm, affectionate, sometimes funny if that's who they were.
What families put in one
The photos that make people laugh, not just the formal portrait. The nickname only the grandchildren used. The saying everyone can still hear in their voice. What they were like in an ordinary week, not just the milestones.
You write a few honest sentences and the narration is built from exactly that - nothing invented, no stock eulogy phrases. If you tell us she reorganised every kitchen she ever walked into, that's what the video says.
Where it gets used
This is a short, vertical, phone-shaped tribute - so its natural home is sharing rather than a projector. Families send it round the group chat before the gathering, post it for the people who couldn't travel, and keep it on their phone afterwards. If you also need something long-form to play in the room, treat this as the piece people actually take home with them.