Superficially, weddings and funerals have a lot in common: everyone’s dressed up, families get together, some people are crying, and the guests of honor ride off in fancy vehicle to an uncertain future. Funeral homes, though, are large and beautiful spaces that provide a cheaper alternative site for wedding receptions and/or ceremonies.

Looking for new streams of revenue, some funeral homes are adding multi-purpose community centers, which can be used for community meetings, after-funeral receptions,

Although people may think it morbid to start a marriage in a place surrounded by sadness, it would be no different than doing it at a church — where both caskets and newlyweds occupy the aisles throughout the year, says Sue Totterdale, national chairwoman of the National Association of Wedding Professionals. “A banquet hall is a banquet hall, and a chapel is a chapel,” she says. “If you can get past the driveway and the cemetery, it’s going to be beautiful.”

Would you hold or attend a wedding in a funeral home? Realistically, is it any different from holding your wedding in a house of worship where all kinds of ceremonies take place?

Funeral homes find new life by hosting other events [USA Today] (Thanks, Casey!)

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