Every day we help people in their time of need

After the death of a family member or close friend, it is important to know that you can depend on experienced, professional people to make all the arrangements to ensure the funeral flows smoothly.

It is important that you choose the funeral ceremony that is right for you and your family. Geoffrey T Sowman Funeral Directors can guide you through the choices available and then we'll take care of the details to make sure everything flows smoothly on the day.

Our caring team of professionals will liaise with clergy and celebrants, doctors, hospitals, government departments, coroners and other officials, crematoriums and cemetery authorities so you don't have to worry.

We can also arrange music and musicians, including an organist, place notices in the newspapers, and provide vehicles, order family flowers, arrange the placement of ashes and memorials and anything else you require. Repatriation is also a speciality.

Sowman’s Mayfield Chapel offers you an attractive and comfortable chapel for your service. Our chapel facilities are air conditioned. Sowman’s can provide a digital projector and screen, along with full CD facilities, and can record services both in audio and video/DVD.

The Mayfield Chapel has an organ which is available to accompany our services and a comprehensive sound system.

Next to the Chapel, is the Sowman Lounge, which has recently been beautifully refurbished to create a light and spacious room for catered get-togethers with family and friends after the funeral.

There is also plenty of car-parking space available.

We also design and print individual orders of service and hymn sheets to an attractive layout and with colour photos to help celebrate a life.

Our on-site monumental mason can provide the headstone you want, including photographs, inscriptions and special mementos. Sowman’s also has Marlborough’s only cremation facility on site to save time and expense. Memorials

Sowman's staff are available to speak to local community groups and schools about funerals, and we are also pleased to host community groups at our premises.

Making the right choices

Geoffrey T Sowman Funeral Directors can explain the choices available:

The different types of ceremony, religious or not
The best location for the service: a church or chapel, at home, at the graveside or crematorium
Who should officiate: a priest, minister, celebrant or family members
Whether you want to view the deceased, and where the viewing should be
Whether you want to have a burial or cremation
Whether you want flowers or charitable donations
The most appropriate funeral notice
Casket selection
The order of service, the choice of music and hymns
Venue for a post-funeral get together and how to arrange it
What other professional help is available

Taking care of the details

Once the choices are made, you can choose how little or how much you want Sowman’s professional and experienced staff to help with all the necessary arrangements. We can take care of the following details:

The registration of death and necessary documentation
Contacting appropriate burial or cremation authorities, as well as contacting the doctor, coroner or hospital and collection of certificates
Arranging national or international transportation of repatriation in New Zealand or any other country. Geoffrey T Sowman Funeral Directors is the preferred firm for taking care of these arrangements
Liaising with clergy or funeral celebrants, assisting with the service and organising funeral details
Provision and preparation of casket, which you can select from our modern show room
Embalming, when appropriate, to ensure hygienic preservation and natural presentation
Providing viewing facilities in our modern rooms next to the chapel
Ordering family flowers for the casket
Providing transport to and from the funeral in our modern fleet of hearses and cars
Preparing and placing newspaper notices locally or internationally
Arranging monumental masonry for the memorial stone
Arranging the scattering or burial of ashes in Blenheim or in other centres, as well as providing quality urns