Anniversary
An anniversary speech is a marriage seen from the outside, usually by the children. The numbers are not the story; the routines are. The way they argue about the route. The chair nobody else sits in. Give Podiumi the details and it will build something they will keep.
Usual length
2–5 minutes
The shape it takes
- 01The opening
- 02The two of them
- 03Memories
- 04What they have built
- 05The toast
Where these go wrong
- Listing the years instead of showing them.
- Speaking only about one of the two people.
- Ending without a toast.
What to dig out before you start
Two to five of these, written as fragments, is everything the tool needs. Specific beats impressive every single time.
Open the writing room- 01How they tell the story of meeting — and how the versions differ.
- 02A domestic ritual that has not changed in decades.
- 03A hard year they got through.
- 04Something one of them still does for the other.
Finished anniversary speeches
Two speakers · 4 min
Fifty years, told by both of us
— We agreed to split this evenly. My brother has already broken that agreement.
— They have argued about the route to the coast for fifty years. Neither has ever conceded. Both are wrong; we checked.
— And every morning at twenty to seven, he makes her tea. Fifty years. No exceptions we know of.
- We agreed to split this evenly.
- He's already broken that.
- 6:40 every morning.
- He makes her tea.
- Fifty years. No exceptions.