Most of trade literature aimed at memorials seems to target the search engine rather than the person and for this reason contains a lot of informationless content. What follows is more like the way things actually work: the questions that customers repeat at the counter and that an engraver would answer to his friend.
A lot of the answers might seem dry or unromantic but it is the nature of the business. Granite is a material, cemeteries are institutions, and grief is best handled with straight facts.
Can we place whatever we want on it?
Nearly everything but rarely more.
Cemeteries accept inscriptions. There are very few restrictions: any names, dates, poems, nicknames, military inscriptions and languages – all perfectly fine. What the cemeteries don’t like is big sizes, projections above ground level and structural modifications. Religious cemeteries review the inscription itself and veteran cemeteries use a specific list of emblems.
Under those conditions yes. People ask for tractors, fishing boats, sewing machines, guitars or the outline of a mountain range that was always being hiked in summers. A competent engraver will be able to say which of those can be seen clearly in forty years and which will be silted away by the lichen. Fine detail is the enemy of durability. Bold line work is the friend.
How long does it take? Honestly.
Not as long as people think but not as short as people in industry tend to claim.
The time of production is not the issue. Cutting, polishing and engraving a standard stone is done in days. When the stone is not in the shop yet and needs to travel across the ocean is another story.
This is the question you should be asking whenever you look at headstones for sale and try to compare the offers between vendors. The question is whether the granite is in America already. If the vendor sits on a substantial domestic stockpile and guarantees a completion date, he probably is. If he orders the stone after your deposit is paid – the warranty might turn out to be false. In this case a 60 days completion guarantee is reasonable expectation. Two weeks for fully custom monument is unreasonable and unrealistic.
Is granite really better than the alternatives?
Absolutely and this is not even close.
Marble is beautiful and soft. It works excellently with detail but acid rain and freeze-thaw cycles slowly destroy calcium carbonate and over the decades names start to disappear. They remain visible as outlines but illegible as text. Granite stones from the 1870s are still readable today. Sandstone erodes even faster. Concrete is economical and serviceable enough but it flakes off and internal reinforcement eventually corrodes and splits the stone.
The colors available in quality shops are intentionally limited. Black, grey and red granite stones are low porosity stones and the best choices. If the offer you get includes a rainbow of different colors, find out where the stone comes from and its absorption rate. Usually this ends the conversation instantly.
Flat, bevel, slant or upright?
First it is a question of rules, second a question of taste.
Flat memorial stands at the same level as the grass. This is the requirement in the lawn cemeteries where mowing equipment goes over without any difficulty. It uses less stone, it is cheapest and also most often allowed anywhere.
Bevel rises slightly at the back and drains water better as well as it makes inscription more visible. Slant is in the form of a wedge which looks like a headstone from a walkway. Uprights require a base and normally a foundation. This is the classical shape.
Companion monuments for a couple exist in all varieties and they constitute one of the most frequent purchases. People arrange the names for their spouses and leave one empty space for the future use. Benches serve double purpose of the seating furniture and memorial stones and are popular in cremation gardens.
Choose the shape of the stone allowed in your cemetery and make your choice in this category. The other way leads to months of waiting.
What about cremation – do we need a stone now?
This is becoming a more common question and statistics prove it. According to the National Funeral Directors Association Americans chose cremation in 63.4% cases in 2025 against a burial rate of 31.6%, and this rate is expected to rise to 82.3% in 2045. Today three states still have majority of burials but in 2035 the NFDA predicts more than 50% cremation in every single state and Washington D.C.
Casket did not go with a body, stone remained the same. Remains can be buried in plots or niches or even placed in columbarium. All these spaces usually have stones. Today people buy smaller stones – flush monuments for a cremation plot, companion monument with vaults and niches for cremation, or benches for interment chamber.
In the case of the cremation memorial is especially important since otherwise there is no definite location to visit.
Should we buy the stone before the need?
The economic rationale behind preneed purchasing is powerful and emotional – individual.
When the monument is bought under the stress of recent loss and other twenty purchases – it is possible to regret this decision and never be able to return or change it. Preneed purchasing takes away the rush completely and fixes the price. NFDA reported that the median funeral and burial package increased 5.8% in two years while the funeral with cremation rose 8.1%. Memorial markers follow the same trend. Interest free preneed arrangements that last up to thirty-six months and do not charge any extra storage fee until the stone becomes necessary are widespread among vendors of monuments.
Discounts are often provided to veterans and first responders and when buying two stones in one order – price is lower than when buying individually.
No one forces anybody to arrange anything in advance and some people simply cannot imagine it. That is entirely legitimate, but if the idea crossed your mind, you have an opportunity to save time and money.
Who installs the stone?
It is rarely the same company who engraved it and a claim that the company has national team of installers requires a second look.
Shop manufactures and ships monuments and organizes installation or gives customer the contact of the approved installer. Some cemeteries require pouring and installing the stone by themselves and charge a fee for doing that. This fee is legitimate and charged directly by the cemetery.
Get the written information in advance before comparing prices of various options. Quote which includes everything including shipping but not the setting of stone is no more expensive than a high price hiding the setting fee. You can tell the difference only by asking a question.
If you need to find where these types, materials and price bands meet, check the catalog of American-cut monuments at Capital Grave Markers.
