Preparing an anniversary speech for your parents? As if public speaking wasn’t already stress-inducing enough. Now, you have to consider various memories, your parent’s unique love story, and potentially how your siblings will get involved with the speech too.
Set your worries aside. As a professional wedding speech writer, I am here to share my seven tips for how to write a parent’s anniversary speech that will truly honor your folks.
Tip #1: Conduct a Brainstorm Session with Your Siblings
Whether or not you’re giving the speech alongside your siblings, it can be helpful to have a group brainstorm.
Get together and reminisce about some of your favorite memories growing up.
Here are a few prompts to help get the ideas flowing:
What do you admire about your parent’s relationship?
What have your parents taught you about life and love?
How did their marriage impact your own love life?
Describe the vacations you took together.
What was the best part of the holidays?
How did you spend your weekends as a family?
How did your parents show you support?
Jot down notes as everyone talks. You’ll reference these notes later in the anniversary speech writing process.
Tip #2: Narrow Down Your Ideas and Decide on a Theme
Now that you have a list of ideas, it’s time to narrow down the list. Focus on stories you’d actually want to include in the anniversary speech to your parents.
As you narrow down ideas, it can help to first decide on a theme. A theme is a great way to tie together several different stories in an impactful and meaningful way.
For example, when you look at your list of ideas, what themes pop out at you?
Perhaps many of the ideas focus on how funny your parents are. In this case, their sense of play and good humor could be the theme for your speech.
This way, you could tell three completely different stories but connect them all by using this theme.
Then, you use that theme to transition from fun stories to their anniversary celebration.
Here’s an example of what that might look like:
“It didn’t matter if my dad was making us laugh with his John Bon Jovi impression on long road trips or if my mom just giggled every time she burned the meatloaf dinner—laughter has always filled our home.
It’s been their good sense of humor and ability to laugh together that has brought them so much joy and love for the past 50 years.
Here’s to many more years of laughter and love!”
Tip #3: Write the Introduction
The biggest challenge when writing an anniversary speech is often with how to begin.
Here’s a little secret: the opening line can be very simple and straight-forward.
In fact, it should be! Don’t overthink this part or allow this section to delay the rest of the speech from being written.
Follow this format for your introduction and you’ll be on your way:
Greet the guests
State your name
State your connection to your parents
Here are some examples:
Good evening, everyone. My name is Laura and I’m Gene and Janice’s oldest daughter.
Welcome, everyone. I’m Bobby, the couple’s third son.
Tip #4: Write Your First Draft and then Edit the Speech
Now that you have your opening written, it’s time to complete the first draft of your parent’s anniversary speech.
While this part can be overwhelming, you already have a theme and stories to support that theme. Now you just need to follow an anniversary speech outline to help structure the entire flow of your speech.
Here’s a speech outline for you to reference:
Introduction
Thank guests for being there
Deliver your 2 - 3 stories
Tie it into the larger theme
End with a strong closing line for the toast
Don’t worry about having a perfect first draft. It’s called a first draft—not a final draft. Just get your ideas down on paper using the provided structure.
Next, start the editing process so that you can achieve a more polished, presentation-ready version of the speech.
Read it out loud to see which words you could remove, how you could shorten stories to get to the point more quickly and to discover what might be missing.
Tip #5: Practice Reciting the Anniversary Speech
Writing the anniversary speech for your parents is really only half of the challenge. The other is being able to recite it with confidence, poise, and lots of personality.
Here are my public speaking tips for you to reference:
Practice reciting the speech out loud three to six times before the anniversary party
Do not try to memorize the speech. If you forget one word, you’ll get tripped up and could forget the entire speech. Instead, print the speech and read it while making eye contact with your parents and their guests.
Do not read the speech off of your phone or a tablet. The backlight will discolor your face in photos and it looks impersonal.
Slow down and speak more slowly than you think you need to.
Bring lots of energy! If you normally operate at a 7, it’s time to show guests you at an 11.
Tip #6: Know How to Use a Microphone
The volume of your voice as you deliver this speech is one of the single most important details that can make or break your performance.
First, make sure the venue has a working microphone for you to use. If you’re giving the speech with your siblings, make sure they have enough microphones so each of you can hold one. Passing one mic between people is distracting, awkward, and can cause technical issues.
Next, be aware of how you’re holding the microphone. You want to hold it close enough to your mouth so it can pick up your voice but you do not want to block your face. Otherwise, guests won’t be able to see you.
Also, be aware of your movement. If you move your head from the left to the right while speaking, be sure to move the mic with you so it can pick up your voice.
And remember, just because you have a mic, this does not mean you shouldn’t be aware of your volume.
Speak loudly. Speak articulately. The mic will elevate what you bring to the stage.
Tip #7: Have a Great Last Line for the Anniversary Speech
An anniversary speech is complete when you have written a strong last line.
Try to come up with a last line that in some way ties into the theme or a specific idea you noted at the beginning of the speech. This will provide emotional impact.
Be sure to tell guests to raise a glass before you deliver this last line. This serves as a queue for them to know that the speech is coming to a close and it’s almost time to click glasses!
Still need help writing the anniversary speech to your parents?
As a professional wedding speech writer, I can help. Get in touch and we’ll discuss how I can write a custom and personalized anniversary speech that your parents will appreciate and feel honored to hear from you.