Letterstone

How it works

Nine questions and your memorial is ready. Answer them in any order that feels right.

StoneInscriptionPlinthBase
The parts of a memorial: the stone that carries the inscription, the plinth some stones sit on, and the base it all stands on. These are the words the screens use.
  1. The memorial

    The shape and the stone.

  2. The words

    The names, the dates, an epitaph if there is one.

  3. The place

    Where it stands, and what that council allows.

  4. Your say

    Seeing it whole, before anything is cut.

  5. It stands

    Made, and set in the ground.

Screen by screen, that is:

  1. WhoWhose memorial is this?
  2. HowBurial, or ashes?
  3. LayoutHow should it be set?
  4. ShapeWhat shape is the stone?
  5. StoneWhich stone?
  6. WordsAnything more to say?
  7. WhereWhere will it stand?
  8. PriceWhat it costs.
  9. ReviewHere it is.

Everyone gets a say

Every design has a link. Send it to whoever should see it and they are looking at the same memorial you are, on whatever they happen to be holding. There is nothing for them to sign up to and nothing for them to fill in.

You approve it before anything is cut

The stone on your screen is drawn the way it would be made: the granite, the letters at the size they will be cut, the base it stands on. That drawing is the proof. There is no separate proof to wait for and none to pay for, and nothing goes near a stone until you have looked at it and said yes.

What you take away, either way

The design is yours. Download it, send the link to your family, sleep on it for a year. None of that costs anything and none of it expires.

If you would rather use your own monumental mason, the production pack gives them everything they need to quote and build it anywhere in New Zealand. If you would like us to make it, the pack is credited in full.

How long it takes

Design, then the council’s permit, then the engraving, then the installation. There are no dates on that line on purpose... most families take months and some take a year, and every one of them is on time.

The council

Cemeteries set rules about how big a memorial may be, what it may be made of, and what may be planted around it. We hold those rules for the cemeteries we cover and check your design against them while you work, so you never design something you are not allowed to have.

Most councils also charge a permit fee. That is theirs, not ours, and we pass it on at cost.

Start a design