25th anniversary wishes for family, friends, colleagues and your partner

Unlike a golden wedding, a silver one often finds the couple still working, with children who have just left home or are about to. The wishes can sound livelier as a result: less looking back, more looking forward to the stretch that starts now.

Square brackets mark what to fill in. The greeting follows the relationship: familiar among family and friends, more formal from the office and from neighbours you know by surname. In the United States people mostly say 25th or silver anniversary, while in Britain, Ireland and Australia silver wedding is just as common; the messages work with any of them. The guide on what to write in a wedding card covers how a card is built from the first line to the signature, and the page about the silver wedding anniversary explains the anniversary itself, how it is celebrated and which gifts suit it.

Children often write for a silver anniversary at an age when they are starting to see how much work goes into a long marriage. A line of thanks almost always fits; from younger children, a bit of cheek is welcome too.

• Dear Mum and Dad, twenty-five years married, and we've been around for most of them. Thank you for building a home where we always felt safe. Happy silver anniversary!
• Twenty-five years ago you said “I do”, and we turned out to be the loudest part of the deal. Lots of love on your silver anniversary!
• Dear Mum and Dad, we know by now that a marriage doesn't hold together on its own. Which only makes us admire more how you've managed it for twenty-five years.
• For your silver anniversary we wish you time for just the two of you, now that we're past the worst of it. We'll do the dishes tonight.
• Mum, Dad, you're the reason I believe in love. Happy 25th, and I'm proud to be yours.
• Twenty-five years married, and [number] of them with me under the same roof. You must have nerves of steel, or at least of silver. Congratulations!
• Even though we don't live with you any more, going home still means coming back to the two of you. Happy silver anniversary!
• Dear Mum and [name], you made one family out of two, and it wasn't always easy. Thank you for your patience, and congratulations on 25 years!

The last message is for blended families in which one parent is a step-parent; use the names the child actually calls them.

At a silver anniversary the couple's own parents are often still alive, and brothers and sisters have been there since the beginning. Both can look back, because they saw the start for themselves, and both know exactly which names go in the brackets.

Brothers and sisters

• Dear [sister's name] and [name], I was at your wedding and I'm here again today, just with a few more grey hairs. I'm so happy for you both. Lots of love on your silver anniversary!
• Dear [brother's name] and [name], 25 years, and I can barely remember a time when [name] wasn't part of the family. Congratulations!
• You two showed me how it's done, and I've borrowed more than a few of your ideas. Happy silver anniversary from your little sister!
• Dear [names], as your sister I've watched every stage: the first place of your own, the children, the house. And through all of it you were a couple. Congratulations on your silver wedding!

The couple's parents

• Dear [names], when you married 25 years ago we were happy for you. Today, more than anything, we're proud. With love on your silver anniversary, Mum and Dad
• Dear [name] and [name], back then we saw our child married and gained another person to love. Twenty-five years on, we know how lucky that was.

Aunts, uncles and godchildren

• Dear Aunt [name] and Uncle [name], you've always been the couple who made everything look easy. Congratulations on 25 years!
• Dear [names], as your godchild I've shared many of these years and loved every sleepover at your house. Happy silver anniversary!

Friends can bring up shared evenings and tease a little. At work a different rule applies: congratulate warmly, speculate about nothing private, and have the whole team sign one card instead of everyone sending their own. If you use surnames at work, use them here too.

Friends

• Dear [names], 25 years married and still the last couple on the dance floor at every party. Happy silver anniversary!
• We've known you almost as long as you've been married and have never seen you argue about anything important. Only about small things, and always with style. Congratulations!
• To twenty-five years of marriage and nearly as many years of friendship with us. We couldn't have picked better. Lots of love on your silver anniversary!
• Silver is a precious metal, and you've more than earned it. We hope the shine lasts a long time yet.
• Dear [names], warm congratulations on your silver wedding. We're already looking forward to raising a glass with you again in twenty-five years, to gold.
• In 25 years you never lost sight of each other, even when life did its best to make you. That is the real achievement. Congratulations!

Neighbours

• Dear [names], congratulations on your silver anniversary! We're lucky to have such lovely neighbours and hope you have a wonderful celebration.
• Dear [names], 25 years of marriage deserve a wave over the hedge, this time with something sparkling. Lots of love from next door!

Colleagues

• Dear [name], warm congratulations to you and [partner's name] on your silver anniversary. We hope you have a wonderful day. From all of us in [department]
• Dear [name], 25 years married is a number the whole team takes its hat off to. Congratulations from everyone in the department!
• Warmest congratulations on your silver wedding anniversary! We wish you both a lovely celebration and many more happy years together.
• Dear [name], on behalf of the management, congratulations on your silver anniversary. Enjoy the day with your family; the work will happily wait until tomorrow.
• Congratulations on 25 years, [name]! Anyone who has stayed the course that long has our full respect, and tonight there will be no emails from us, guaranteed.

Twenty-five years is a good occasion to tell your partner what gets lost in the everyday. That does not need a verse, just one sentence that could only belong to this marriage. The messages below are a starting point to carry on with your own memories.

• Twenty-five years ago I promised to stay with you. Today I know it was the easiest promise I've ever made.
• Twenty-five years, [number] house moves and more mornings than I can count with a coffee you put down in front of me. I love you more than I did on the first day.
• We've both gone silver, you and I: at the temples and in our marriage. It suits us both.
• “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be” wrote Robert Browning. You've spent twenty-five years proving him right. Happy silver anniversary, my love.
• You've known every version of me over these 25 years and loved each one of them. Thank you, my darling.
• I'd do all of it again exactly the same way. Except perhaps the hair in our wedding photos. Happy silver anniversary!
• Today I'll say it once more, without an officiant or witnesses: yes. Yes, every time.
• Silver tarnishes if nobody looks after it. Thank you for looking after us so lovingly for 25 years.

If you are using the anniversary to renew your wedding vows, the second-to-last message is a place to start your own words.

If you know the couple less well or are writing for a larger group, choose by tone rather than by relationship. The Bible verses are quoted from the King James Version. Funny messages tease the couple, never one of them alone, and leave out any rough patch that everyone around them knows about.

Classic

• Congratulations on your silver anniversary! May the shine of this day go with you through the next twenty-five years.
• On your silver wedding anniversary we wish you good health, contentment and many more happy years together.
• A quarter of a century of love, trust and standing by each other. Our warmest congratulations.

Religious

• “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9) God bless you both on your silver anniversary and in all the years to come.
• “… whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge” (Ruth 1:16). For twenty-five years you have lived these words. Congratulations, and God bless you.
• The Book of Ecclesiastes says that “a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (4:12). May your bond, with God's help, keep holding. Congratulations on your silver wedding!

Funny

• 25 years married: long enough to wear out several washing machines. You two, on the other hand, are still running like new.
• Silver means you're halfway to gold. Keep going, it's worth it!
• Congratulations! Sharing the same remote control for twenty-five years is an achievement that deserves proper recognition.
• Silver in your hair, silver on the calendar and still gold at heart. Congratulations, you two!
• You're officially a classic now. And classics, as everyone knows, never go out of style.

Short

• 25 years, one team. Happy silver anniversary!
• Silver wishes and lots of love to you both!
• To a quarter of a century, and many more years to come!
• Congratulations on your silver wedding. Never change!

Every one of these becomes more personal when you add one small detail that only you would know: the year of the wedding, the place of the ceremony, the car everyone drove to the reception in. The short lines also work as a text on the morning of the party, when the real card is not being handed over until the evening.