Four (or More) Weddings and a Funeral

Talk about repurposing unused capacity:

All across the country, funeral homes -- some 89% of them owned by individuals, families, or private companies -- are adding reception halls with catering kitchens and 12-foot screens for multimedia presentations. "And most of that change has come within the past three or four years," the magazine says.

With cremation on the rise, sales of pricey caskets are down, and funeral directors are turning into event planners, Business Week reports.

Makes sense. They have event planning skills and they have facilities. It will be interesting to see if the non-logical but understandable creep-out factor is a problem. But, you know, funeral homes are nice places in general; can they overcome the death factor and be seen more as facilities for celebrating (or acknowledging) big life transitions?

Technorati tags: funeral homes, weddings, event planning