Working With a Funeral Director for an Amish or Plain Burial

The Funeral Director's Role in a Plain Community Funeral

In most Old Order Amish and conservative Mennonite funerals, a funeral director plays a limited but essential role. They may handle the legal documentation — death certificates, any required burial-transit permits, coordination with coroners — and perform the chemical embalming that allows multi-day home viewings in unrefrigerated farmhouses.

Once the embalmed body is returned to the family home in a plain pine casket, the funeral director steps aside. The community takes over from there: same-sex relatives dress the body, the church district sets up the viewing, and the deacon coordinates everything from bench placement to the graveside committal.

The friction comes when the funeral director isn't experienced with plain customs, or when a diaspora family member is coordinating the funeral from outside the community and must work with a mainstream commercial director who has never handled a plain burial.

The No-Cosmetics Directive

The single most important instruction to communicate to any funeral director handling an Amish body: no cosmetic enhancements of any kind.

This means:

• No makeup or foundation, even to cover discoloration
• No hair styling or shaping
• No reconstructive modifications, even after severe trauma
• No nail polish or manicuring
• No colored contact lenses or positioning devices that alter the face

The Amish standard is direct: "How it is, is how we take it." The physical reality of death is accepted without embellishment. This reflects Gelassenheit — yielding to God's will — and the plain testimony against vanity.

Mainstream funeral homes default to cosmetic preparation because it's what most families expect. If you don't give explicit instructions, the embalmer may apply standard restorative work without asking. Put the no-cosmetics directive in writing before the body arrives at the funeral home.

Plain Casket Rights Under the FTC Funeral Rule

The Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule provides critical protections that directly serve plain community needs:

You have the legal right to supply your own casket. A funeral home cannot refuse to handle a burial because you're bringing a plain pine casket built by a local Amish carpenter instead of purchasing from their showroom. They also cannot charge a "handling fee" for using a third-party casket.

You have the right to an itemized price list. The funeral home must provide a General Price List (GPL) that breaks down every service and product separately. You can select only the specific services the family needs, but the funeral home may charge a non-declinable basic services fee that it must disclose on the GPL; it cannot make unwanted goods or services a condition of providing the services you choose.

You can refuse embalming in many cases. The Funeral Rule states that no state or local law universally requires embalming. For a traditional multi-day home viewing without refrigeration, families often use embalming. Pennsylvania instead allows embalming, refrigeration, or placement in a sealed container when final disposition is more than 24 hours after death; other jurisdictions have their own rules.

Finding a Director Who Understands Plain Customs

In established Amish settlements — Lancaster County, PA; Holmes County, OH; Elkhart-LaGrange, IN — there are funeral directors who have served plain communities for decades. They know the customs, they know the timing, and they know when to step back.

Signs of a plain-experienced director:

• They can describe the process of returning a body to the home in a community-built casket
• They understand the three-day timeline and can work within it
• They don't push upsells on premium caskets, vault liners, or cosmetic packages
• They have working relationships with local Amish church deacons

If you're working with a director who doesn't have this experience — common when a death occurs away from a plain settlement — you'll need to be more explicit about every step. Provide written instructions covering:

1. No cosmetic preparation (detailed above)
2. The family will complete the dressing at home; the district may use white burial garments or conservative Sunday clothing
3. The family will provide a plain wooden casket built or selected according to the district's custom
4. If the district uses a home viewing, the body should be returned to the family home rather than held at the funeral home for visitation
5. Process the applicable paperwork promptly under the state's rules: Pennsylvania's death certificate is due within four business days and before final disposition; Ohio requires presentation to the physician or coroner within 48 hours; in Indiana, the funeral director files the death certificate before obtaining the burial-transit permit

Cost Considerations

Part of the funeral director's value in a plain community context is what they don't charge for. A typical Amish funeral runs a fraction of the mainstream American average because the community provides almost everything: the casket, the venue (the home), the food, the grave digging, the procession logistics.

In established plain-settlement arrangements, the funeral director's invoice often centers on preservation, body transportation (home to funeral home and back), and required paperwork; ask for the GPL and itemized charges.

Where families run into unexpected costs:

• Death occurring away from the home settlement, requiring long-distance transport
• Hospital holds for organ procurement review (delaying the timeline)
• Indiana's requirement for a licensed funeral director to oversee all disposition, adding mandatory professional fees

The Amish & Mennonite Funeral Guide includes printable directive cards you can hand directly to a funeral director, covering no-cosmetics instructions, FTC rights, and the plain burial standard — formatted so nothing gets lost in verbal communication during a high-stress moment.