Are you preparing for the death of someone close to you?
Maybe you had a bad experience with the death industry and don’t want it to happen to your family?
Or perhaps you want to make a relative or friend’s death a real heartfelt appropriate celebration, not a tragedy?
At Funerals By Design we are an independent, family-owned funeral director, passionate about providing authentic, compassionate, affordable and better ways to say goodbye.
Whether you decide to farewell someone you love with a funeral, cremation, burial, memorial service, wake or a celebration of life, we are here to help you make sure it is truly a reflection of the person whose life we are celebrating.
It’s time to change the way that funerals are done for the better.
At Funerals By Design we offer alternatives to farewelling your loved ones with either a formal, traditional service held in a church or an impersonal, “cookie cutter” service rushed through a crematorium.
Our funerals are affordable and transparent, with no hidden markups. We don’t charge you for services you don’t want or need, and you get to decide what items you would like included. We simply charge you the cost price for each item, add 35% to the final bill (this is our profit margin) and then we donate 5% of our service fee to a charity of your choice.
Our professional funeral directors will take care of absolutely everything for you and give you the time and any guidance you need to find the funeral service that suits you, whether it’s a cremation, burial, memorial service or a celebration of life.
We can help you with every aspect of creating a meaningful farewell, including choosing coffins, caskets and urns, the venue, the wake, live streaming, equipment hire, scattering of ashes and more.
Hi, I’m Karin Slade and I’m a funeral director, a wake caterer and the founder and owner of Funerals By Design, Heavenly Catering, Sailing By Design and Catering By Design. My personal experiences and those of my many clients since, have placed me close and personal to the rituals and realities of death.
Eighteen years ago I experienced 8 funerals in my own family in 5 months. The stress cost and treatment by the funeral industry left us feeling like we were in a fog and in a process with unkind time restraints. Informing friends, finding a lifetime of photos and catering for masses were just a few things that added stress to a very emotional time. Since then, I have seen many others go through the same fog, stress and feelings of being overwhelmed.
I founded Funerals By Design because I want to help families who have the unfortunate task of planning a funeral or a wake to do so in the most stress-free and enjoyable way possible so they can celebrate their loved ones life instead of becoming stressed, depressed, overwhelmed and financially burdened.
As an independent Northern Beaches funeral director, we are here to help you to say goodbye in a meaningful way that is all about the life we are celebrating… reflecting their style, personality and story in so many ways with personalised touches.
We are here for you 24/7 and we can do as much or as little as you’d like. Just let us know how best to support you.
I was completely lost as to what to do in organising my late father’s funeral as I have never had any knowledge of what to do, where to start, or what it should cost. Then I spoke to Karin and all of my fear, worry and concern left me. She reached out like a friend with true empathy and sympathy for my position and with the utmost sincerity held my hand through the whole process. The personal touch, honesty and amazing attention to detail is the basic benchmark for Karin and her team. Karin, with all of my heart and that of my family, Thank You!
Owen McInnes
My mum passed away last year. It was a sad and emotional time. Karin lovingly took care of my mum's funeral and cremation arrangements so professionally that we all felt relieved and blessed. She is like a caring family member. Thanks again Karin for your patience and kindness that we’ve received from you during those sad times.
Brad Iranzadi
Highly recommend Funerals By Design. Karin is amazing and made the process of organising our dad's funeral so easy. She was our first call and basically dropped everything and came to my mum's house to start the process.
Rohan Fisher
I would like to thank Karin for the care and attention she displayed with my family and I when we lost our father, husband, grandfather and great grandfather in early March 2021. Her advice and efficiency in getting everything done at such a difficult time was second to none and saved us a lot of worry.
Karin allowed us to tell her how we wanted to handle things without dictating to us what we should do. Thank you so much for everything you did to make things easier and financially cheaper for us at such a difficult time.
Warwick Jock Nihill
Karin and Sarah have totally changed my whole view of how funerals can be done. I’ve also had so much feedback from everyone who was there in person or watched the livestream or even used the link to watch the funeral later. Prior to the funeral, people were questioning our choice of outdoor location – now they are telling me it has totally changed their view on what a funeral looks like.
Jacinta King
Karin recently took care of my mother in law who passed away recently. Our family were blessed to have her knowledge, care and support.????❤
Penny Holbrook
A lovely, personable and transparent service. Staff were lovely. The funeral Director was up front about costs & choices, was very flexible with making time for us. For a family of 10 children, she was exceptional at navigating everyone’s needs. At a difficult time it is very reassuring to be guided through this process by someone kind, helpful & knowledgeable. Highly recommend this wonderful service.
Jessica Sekulich
Dear Karin, Our family just wanted to send bucket loads of appreciation to yourself and your wonderful team! What a feast, it was spectacular, we have received so many kind remarks and comments since , everybody not only loved the food but your relaxed fun loving disposition even at a sad time…you really are a 💎 gem!! You’re whole team were just so lovely! We will never forget the sight of you joining the dancing whilst juggling home made vanilla slice and sticky date pudding!! Once again, our sincere gratitude and especially for making our Dads send off, one we will remember with a lighter heart because of you.
Taylor family
