diff --git a/examples/custom_events/server.py b/examples/custom_events/server.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..32e1e092
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/custom_events/server.py
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+"""
+Allows the `/stream` endpoint to return `sse_starlette.ServerSentEvent` from runnable,
+allowing you to return custom events such as `event: error`.
+"""
+
+from typing import Any, AsyncIterator, Dict
+
+from fastapi import FastAPI
+from langchain_core.runnables import RunnableConfig, RunnableLambda
+from sse_starlette import ServerSentEvent
+
+from langserve import add_routes
+from langserve.pydantic_v1 import BaseModel
+
+app = FastAPI(
+    title="LangChain Server",
+    version="1.0",
+    description="Spin up a simple api server using Langchain's Runnable interfaces",
+)
+
+
+class InputType(BaseModel): ...
+
+
+class OutputType(BaseModel):
+    message: str
+
+
+async def error_event(
+    _: InputType,
+    config: RunnableConfig,
+) -> AsyncIterator[Dict[str, Any] | ServerSentEvent]:
+    for i in range(4):
+        yield {
+            "message": f"Message {i}",
+        }
+
+    is_streaming = False
+    if "metadata" in config:
+        metadata = config["metadata"]
+        if "__langserve_endpoint" in metadata:
+            is_streaming = metadata["__langserve_endpoint"] == "stream"
+
+    if is_streaming:
+        yield ServerSentEvent(
+            data={
+                "message": "An error occurred",
+            },
+            event="error",
+        )
+    else:
+        yield {
+            "message": "An error occurred",
+        }
+
+
+add_routes(
+    app,
+    RunnableLambda(error_event),
+    input_type=InputType,
+    output_type=OutputType,
+)
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    import uvicorn
+
+    uvicorn.run(app, host="localhost", port=8000)
diff --git a/langserve/api_handler.py b/langserve/api_handler.py
index d6b24b58..5a879f16 100644
--- a/langserve/api_handler.py
+++ b/langserve/api_handler.py
@@ -78,9 +78,10 @@
 from langserve.version import __version__
 
 try:
-    from sse_starlette import EventSourceResponse
+    from sse_starlette import EventSourceResponse, ServerSentEvent
 except ImportError:
     EventSourceResponse = Any
+    ServerSentEvent = Any
 
 
 def _is_hosted() -> bool:
@@ -833,6 +834,9 @@ async def invoke(
             output = await invoke_coro
             feedback_token = None
 
+        if ServerSentEvent is not Any and isinstance(output, ServerSentEvent):
+            output = output.data
+
         if self._include_callback_events:
             callback_events = [
                 _scrub_exceptions_in_event(event)
@@ -1111,7 +1115,7 @@ async def stream(
             feedback_key = None
             task = None
 
-        async def _stream() -> AsyncIterator[dict]:
+        async def _stream() -> AsyncIterator[dict | ServerSentEvent]:
             """Stream the output of the runnable."""
             try:
                 config_w_callbacks = config.copy()
@@ -1136,6 +1140,15 @@ async def _stream() -> AsyncIterator[dict]:
                             run_id, feedback_key, feedback_token
                         )
 
+                    if ServerSentEvent is not Any and isinstance(
+                        chunk, ServerSentEvent
+                    ):
+                        yield {
+                            "event": chunk.event,
+                            "data": self._serializer.dumps(chunk.data).decode("utf-8"),
+                        }
+                        continue
+
                     yield {
                         # EventSourceResponse expects a string for data
                         # so after serializing into bytes, we decode into utf-8