How do I set up anniversary emails?

How do I set up anniversary emails?

I want to set up yearly reminders for customers but each customer would have a different date. I cant figure out the format I should use to get the email to work based on a date that I determine. My thought was that I could create a customer date field in CRM, once that field was populated it would add them to a list and workflow based on that date. I keep running into roadblocks. I don't want the emails going out when I add them to a list because I have a lot to add at one time and they all will have different anniversary dates. Can anyone post a pic of a workflow or explain how to get the process started using a date I specify that is different for each customer?