Planning a wedding? You might want to consider your local funeral home for the event.

In order to survive in an increasingly competitive marketplace, funeral homes are offering their facilities for functions other than final respects - weddings, anniversaries, and meetings of community organizations, for instance.

And cost-conscious couples planning to tie the knot are discovering that funeral homes offer an affordable alternative for their nuptials.

Some funeral homes have built community or family centers specifically for the purpose. A recent survey by the National Funeral Directors Association found that 10 percent of all homes that responded had such facilities.

But often, the funeral home itself is a suitable setting. Their decor is usually formal and lavish enough to suit the tastes of most brides, and if they can overcome jitters at the idea of saying "I do" in a place where the dead are memorialized, they often find funeral parlors more than fitting settings.

Paulita Flores, who had her wedding at the Community Life Center at Washington Park East Cemetery in Indianapolis, was just such a bride. "At first, when I pulled up and saw it was a funeral home, it did concern me," she admitted in a USA Today story. "But when we walked in and saw everything, it was overwhelming. I fell in love and thought it was the perfect place. It was breathtaking, so it (the funeral home aspect) didn't cross my mind again."

But in a sense, having a wedding in a funeral home - even one on the grounds of a cemetery - shouldn't seem so alien. Weddings and funerals have been held in churches for centuries, and up until the 19th century, most churches had graveyards on their property. In older American cities even today, couples who marry in certain churches can walk out the church door right into the graveyard.

Having a wedding in a funeral home offers couples significant cost savings over using banquet or wedding halls in many cases. That cost advantage has led a growing number of funeral home operators to actively seek wedding business.

While weddings in funeral homes are a relatively new national trend, they are not unheard of. The Mission Park South Funeral Home in San Antonio, for instance, has held weddings at its facility since 1965. Even though the home does not advertise the service, it hosts on average about 50 weddings a year.