How To Pick Your Monument

Choose Your Size

Every monument shape will come in a different size. The size you pick affects how much you can put on your monument and your cost. We can help you decide on the size once we know what you want to include in your design.

Choose Your Color

The best way to decide on a color is to visit a monument dealer and see the various choices in person. Some of our most popular colors are… Gray, North American Pink, Missouri Red, Mahogany, Superior Black, Jet Black, American Black, Colonial Rose, Bahama Blue, Paradiso and India Red.

We can order any color that you may find that you want. We sometimes can order a sample color, if we have a special request from a customer. The color affects the price of your monument. Looking at the list above—variations of gray are the least expensive and some of the reds are the most expensive.

Choose Your Edge

The number of polished (smooth) sides and number of rock pitch (rough) sides affects the price and the look of your monument.

Notice that Rev. Williams’ monument has a smooth area on the base where it says “PRINCESS WARRIOR” and the upright monument part has smooth edges, as evidenced by the sun reflecting off the top. The polished areas on your monument will modestly increase the cost of your memorial. The more edges you chose to be polished the more expensive your monument will be.

The Haught monument has a polished top, but the sides are rock pitch (rough). The sides are hard to see from the picture angle, but you can look at the base for reference. The base (what the vases are setting on) show a good example of what rock pitch (rough) edges look like.

We offer many options for creating your memorial. Please feel free to look around our web site, view our photo galleries, stop by our office or call us for some help.

Choose Your Design

Families have many choices of what to engrave on their loved one’s monuments.

Many people want to include only the most important and basic memorial information:

• Given Name
• Nick Name
• Birth Date
• Death Date

Popular text:

• Parents of…
• Wedding Date
• Bible Verse

For Reference: An Epitaph a short piece of writing that honors a person who has passed, especially one written on a grave marker.

Choose Your Symbols

Popular Symbols or Memories:

• Religious
• Flowers
• Hobbies
• Hunting
• Portraits
• Collage of Portraits
• Nature Scenes
• Picture of house or farm
• Cars/Motorcycles/Tractors
• Relating to career choice
• Anything you can think of that represents your family member or friend that is important.

Choose Your Scene, Color, Sandblasting

Families have many choices of what to engrave on their loved one’s monuments.

Portraits

Many families like to put portraits on their cemetery memorials. You have three basic ways to do this:

• Ceramic Portraits
• Laser Engraved Portraits
• GlassArt Portraits

Hand Etched & Laser Images

Laser and Hand Etched designs look similar and result in beautiful long lasting designs.

• Laser designs use a photograph, uploaded to a computer, and are then lasered onto your granite memorial.
• Hand Etched designs are drawn by our local professional artist from photographs and ideas provided by a family. The design is sketched onto drawing paper for approval and then hand etched onto your memorial.

Why should you consider this idea?

• Durable against weather
• Detailed designs and shading can be incorporated into the artwork on your monument.
• Multiple photos can be used for reference and our artist can layout a unique design to your specifications, with the hand etching technique.

Considerations

• Designs will ONLY show up well on dark granite colors, such as; Jet Black and American Black.
• B/W designs will always be visible, but will need cleaned and/or re-highlighted over time.
• Hand Etched designs can have color, but will fade over time. Design will still be visible as a B/W design after the color fades.
• The GlassArt technique offers non-fading color options, if fading is a concern. Just ask us for details.

Carved Angels, Trees And Other Granite Design Ideas

Carved monument techniques give your monument a 3d effect and are sometimes considered when families want angels or other 3 dimensional looks. This technique costs more than sandblasted designs due to a Sculptor / Artist needs to work on the granite before it is finalized.