Details of Australia’s own ‘royal wedding’ have emerged after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon tied the knot in a private ceremony at The Lodge on Saturday.

Albanese made history as the first sitting Australian prime minister to marry while in office.

The couple exchanged personally written vows in front of family and friends during a small, outdoor ceremony at the prime minister’s Canberra residence.

“We are absolutely delighted to share our love and commitment to spending our future lives together, in front of our family and closest friends,” they said in a statement.

Haydon’s parents, Bill and Pauline, walked the bride down the aisle to the Ben Folds song The Luckiest.

The prime minister’s dog Toto had the ring-bearing honours and was led by Haydon’s five-year-old niece Ella, who was the flower girl.

Flower girl Ella walks the prime minister’s dog Toto. Photo: Mike Bowers

Haydon wore an intricate long-sleeved white dress embellished with floral motifs by Sydney designer Romance was Born, while Albanese donned a black tuxedo from MJ Bale.

Cheers erupted from the gardens soon after 4.30pm AEDT as the couple was declared husband and wife.

Following the ceremony, the prime minister and Haydon walked back down the aisle to Stevie Wonder’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours).

Guests drank beer in a special can made by Willie the Boatman, whose brewery is in Albanese’s electorate in Sydney’s inner west, before the newlyweds’ first dance to Frank Sinatra’s The Way You Look Tonight.

Custom craft beer cans to mark the occasion. Photo: Mike Bowers

Albanese and Haydon were joined by 60 close friends and family and married by a celebrant from the NSW central coast.

The prime minister had said they planned to marry before the end of 2025, but remained guarded on the details of the ceremony.

But he said it would be a private affair with no world leaders in attendance.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and wife Laura were among the guests, with other Labor figures attending including Tim Ayres, Tony Burke, Katy Gallagher, Penny Wong, Mark Butler, Richard Marles, Penny Sharpe and Jo Haylen.

Albanese and Haydon will have a honeymoon in Australia from Monday to Friday.

Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon exchanged personally written vows. Photo: Mike Bowers

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley sent her congratulations to the married couple.

“I wish them every happiness as they continue building their lives together,” she said.

Haydon, who is head of strategic partnerships at Teachers Mutual Bank, met Albanese at a business dinner in Melbourne in 2019.

Albanese, then opposition leader, was a keynote speaker at a national union conference when a quip about the Rabbitohs during his address led him to be introduced to Haydon.

After referencing South Sydney during the speech, Haydon yelled out “up the Rabbitohs”, which would later prompt messages on social media.

“I slid into his DMs,” Haydon told News Corp in 2022.

“He had a public profile and I didn’t, so I knew that we both followed the same footy team, we both had a love for the inner west and I think I said in that direct message ‘hey, we’re both single’.”

Reflecting on the connection in 2024, Albanese told a Brisbane radio station it was “a very strange way” to meet someone.

“Who would’ve thought that romance could begin there?” he said.

Messages on Twitter led to first dates over craft beer at a Newtown brewery and soon a relationship.

Anthony Albanese with his son Nathan and ring-bearer Toto. Photo: Mike Bowers

When Albanese was involved in a serious car accident in 2021, Haydon said it had crystalised many feelings she had about him.

“It was very scary, and in that moment, you realise just how much you love this person — the fear of losing them. As I jumped in the ambulance and saw Anthony, I knew then the depth of my feelings towards him,” she told the Australian Women’s Weekly.

The couple were regularly seen with each other publicly in the lead up to the 2022 election, with Haydon front and centre with Albanese during his victory speech on election night.

She has been a regular presence on overseas visits with the prime minister, including to the US and world summits.

Haydon has accompanied the PM for official duties and international trips, with a particularly gruelling schedule in the lead-up to their big day. 

The pair travelled to the White House in New York in September and again in October, meeting US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania.

The couple also touched down in London in September, attending a dinner hosted by Albanese’s UK counterpart Keir Starmer and Canadian leader Mark Carney.

The pair’s wedding at the Lodge was the same location where Albanese popped the question to Haydon on Valentine’s Day in 2024.

Albanese proposed with a ring he helped design and made by Leichhardt jeweller Cerrone, following a dinner at an Italian restaurant in the Canberra suburb of Braddon that night.

“We are thrilled and excited to share this news and look forward to spending the rest of our lives together,” the couple said in a statement.

“We are so lucky to have found each other.”

Earlier in 2024, the couple bought a clifftop home overlooking the Central Coast’s Copacabana Beach for $4.3 million.

Before meeting his wife, Albanese was married to Carmel Tebbutt, whom he first met through Young Labor in the late 1980s.

They share a son, Nathan, born in 2000, and separated in early 2019 after 19 years of marriage.

-with AAP