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When Pat McInerney named one of his first beers after Anthony Albanese over a decade ago, he didn’t anticipate catering the future prime minister’s wedding.
“Before he was prime minister he was a very regular customer,” said McInerney, the founder of Sydney brewery Willie the Boatman. “He genuinely loved coming in and was warmly welcomed.”
Fast forward to this year and McInerney offered to make a custom can of the bespoke pale ale featuring Albanese and his now-wife Jodie Haydon’s faces when the prime minister dropped by the St Peters brewery.
“It makes me laugh now because, honestly, I just thought I was doing a mate a favour and I’m quite blown away by the attention.”
Albanese paid for the 16 cases, but they were not the light-bodied, crisp Albo Pale Ale – the popular beer is out of stock. Instead McInerney supplied another Willie the Boatman pale ale.
“Albo called me on the way home, with Jodie, and said how much he loved them … In hindsight I should have kept a four-pack but I was busy toasting to their health,” said McInerney.
Though it’s the first time Willie the Boatman has created bespoke beer cans for a wedding, customised and personalised drinks are a growing trend for Australian nuptials.
Darcy Green, a former wedding planner and now general manager of vendor listing service Easy Weddings, said she’s seen an increase in couples offering custom drinks at their weddings.
“Over the last couple of years, everyone’s trying to – not necessarily out-do each other – but they’re trying to create unique experiences for their guests.”
There are several ways couples create their own drinks for guests, Green said. The easiest and most common is to offer cocktails, “something even named after the couple themselves, or their pets”.
“White labelling” a bottle of wine or can of beer for the occasion, as Albanese did, is also common. “What we usually see with custom labels is more of a gift” rather than something served on the day, Green said.
Though it’s less common and more costly, brewing an entirely new style of beer for a wedding day is “logistics-wise … quite easy,” Green said.
“There’s a lot of local breweries these days and they love doing something custom and a little bit creative.”
Ahead of Green’s own wedding, her now-husband invited his groomsmen to a brewery to make and bottle their own beer. “We didn’t ultimately serve at the wedding but it was a nice touch,” she said.
“I’m sure now that [Albanese has] done it, everyone will follow the trend,” Green said. “Next year it’s all about ‘what’s Taylor Swift going to do?’ But I guess this year it’s ‘what’s Anthony Albanese going to do?’”
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Michael Chiem, owner of Sydney cocktail bar PS40, launched a mobile cocktail van earlier this year for weddings and events. He and his team serve a limited menu of cocktails, tailored to the wedding party.
“The whole process, from start to finish, is similar to when you get your wedding suit or dress fitted,” said Chiem. The couple visit the bar for a consultation and talk through their favourite cocktails, then PS40 personalises a menu of five or six drinks.
“I like to have at least one drink on the menu specifically for the bride and one drink specifically for the groom, or whoever is getting married,” said Chiem.
Rachel Stone, general manager of Archie Rose distillery, said they create personalised spirit bottles for “hundreds of weddings every year”.
Archie Rose has even helped with marriage proposals.
“There have been a few instances of couples having their first date at the Archie Rose Bar in Rosebery, and years later we see a proposal with an Archie Rose tailored gin or whisky.”
Josephine Perry, winemaker and owner of Dormilona in Margaret River, started offering custom labelled wines for weddings three years ago, after a friend requested one for his wedding. When Perry attended the reception, so many guests approached her about the wine, she decided to start offering the service to the public.
After filling out a questionnaire about their interests, the winery’s artist, Sean Edward Whelan, creates a custom illustration for each couple, which is used as a label on bottles of pet nat wine. The original artwork is also given to the couple as a keepsake.
Australian company White Label Brewing specialises in making bespoke beer cans. Though the majority of its customers are for corporate gifts or sporting events, owner Ashley Dionysius said bespoke wedding beer cans are a growing market.
“A barrier is some traditional venues have restrictions on outside food and drink, but more and more people are moving away from traditional venues, so it’s growing,” he said.
Dionysius said he can also tell who is making the order based on the designs. “If it’s the groom-to-be, it tends to be a little bit funny and jovial, if it’s the bride-to-be it’s very much on brand with everything, from the invitations to the decor,” he said.
