How to Pick Your Monument

How do you pick out a monument?
So many choices……

Picking out a monument for someone you love is a very important and sometimes very confusing and stressful task. Just stopping by our indoor and outdoor display area and looking around can help you feel better about starting the process of creating a memorial.

We encourage you to ask us some questions. We will help you focus your attention on a design that you like. There are many shapes and sizes of monuments to pick from.

In general, when you first start looking at monuments, you will need to make decisions about:

Choose Your Shape

Voytko Slant Memorial

The shape of the memorial you choose can be a traditional shape or a unique shape that is guided by a special design element or shape that represents an important part of your loved one’s personality or life. You can find ideas for shapes by going to a cemetery or clicking over to our Monument Gallery page. You can also stop by our office and we will help you decide what shape will fit your needs.

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.

Mattox Companion Upright Gravestone
Fisher Bench Memorial
Brownfield Bronze Accent Memorial

Choose Your Granite 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, Jet Black, American Black, Colonial Rose, Bahama Blue, Paradiso, India Red, and Wausau 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.

Available Edge Choices

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 at

Popular Memorial Design Choices

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.

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.

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

Scenes and Color and Sandblast Options:

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

Mudgetts Monuments