Bride-to-be Mia McKenna-Bruce had heard that, if you bury a sausage the night before your wedding, the sun will shine on your big day. Given Britain’s even-more-temperamental-than-usual weather this summer, she and her groom, fellow actor Tom Leach, decided it was worth a shot ahead of their ceremony, held at Brympton House in Somerset over the weekend. It wasn’t a sausage in the end, though.
“We didn’t have a sausage accessible, so we buried the pepperoni off a slice of pizza,” the BAFTA winner reveals, already back on set just days after her “perfect” wedding weekend. “And it worked! We had the best weather possible. So it really must be a thing.
” Maybe so, but one senses that Mia, who is visibly giddy after exchanging vows with Tom – her partner of seven years and father of their 11-month-old son, Leo – wouldn’t have minded too much if it had chucked it down all day. She took the small matter of a broken foot in her stride, for want of a better phrase, simply concealing her medical boot beneath the sweeping skirts of her “princess-y” Pronovias wedding gown. “The dress hid it during the day, and by the time we got to the evening I was sooo not bothered,” says the actor, laughing.
“I mean, I danced a bit too hard in it I think...
but we had to do what we had to do!” Life has been something of a whirlwind recently for the 27-year-old, who became a breakout star last year thanks to an unforgettable lead performance in How to Have Sex , the debut feature from young British filmmaker Molly Manning Walker (the director was a guest at the wedding, as was Mia’s co-star Lara Peake). The film won the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes , and Mia went on to pick up trophies from the British Independent Film Awards and the London Film Critics’ Circle, before finally pipping the likes of Ayo Edebiri and Jacob Elordi to the Rising Star award at this year’s BAFTAs. Mia and Tom welcomed baby Leo in August, just as the buzz around the movie was starting to snowball – an experience the actor previously described as being “like two dreams coming true at once”.
And now: their wedding day – two years after Tom flew out to Pamplona to visit Mia on another film set on their five-year anniversary, armed with a stash of her favourite crumpets and a secret plan to propose. “He made me a lovely breakfast spread with crumpets – because I love crumpets,” the bride recalls. “Then he gave me a card, which actually isn’t like Tom, he’s not really one for romance.
It said, ‘Are you ready to get married, yes or no?’ with boxes to tick. He reminded me in his speech at the wedding that I never actually ticked the box that said yes,” Mia says, laughing. “I was too busy screaming.
” Filming commitments aside, the couple has scarcely spent a day apart since they fell in love after meeting on the set of The Rebels , and their big day was a blend of uncontrollable laughter, happy tears and raucous singalongs. “I started crying when we were getting ready,” confesses Mia, who slipped on her gown surrounded by her bridal party – including her two sisters, who shared maid of honour duties – and rounds of mimosas. Watching her sisters and best friends dancing around the honeymoon suite at Brympton to “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, Mia suddenly found herself in tears.
“I don’t know what came over me. Fran was doing my make-up at the time, she was like, no no no!” Emotions were high as the bride walked down the aisle on her dad’s arm, wearing her mum’s treasured diamond necklace – three diamonds, one each for Mia and her two sisters – as her “something borrowed”. But tears turned to joy the moment she caught sight of her groom.
“I just couldn’t stop laughing when I walked down the aisle and I saw him, and all around me people in the congregation were crying. We just giggled. It was so good.
” By the time they were exchanging vows, baby Leo was playing a game of hide and seek with the help of his mum’s wedding dress. “He stole the show, absolutely.” The musical trio Bridge Strings played “Tale As Old As Time” as Mia arrived (“This is so cringey to think now, but one of our first dates was going to the cinema to see Emma Watson in the live action version of Beauty and the Beast ”), and the newlyweds made their exit to the strains of “I’ll Be There For You”.
“Because I’m a crazy Friends fan,” the bride explains. “The venue told us it’s the first time they’ve ever had a couple be sung out of the ceremony by all of their mates.” The impromptu chorus set the tone for all the celebrations to follow, including an unforgettable surprise addition to the entertainment on the day: a live performance of Mia’s favourite song, “Wonderwall”, by the father of the groom.
“Tom’s dad was in a band back in the day and he’s a really good singer, even though he denies it. When we first got engaged I asked if he’d sing at the wedding, but he said he couldn’t do it.” So she was overwhelmed when he wrapped up his speech at the reception by asking the whole wedding party to join him in a rendition of the classic Oasis track, backed by his brother on guitar.
“It was an absolute highlight of my whole life,” McKenna-Bruce says. “I know how nervous he would have been, and how much it woud have taken for him to do it, so it meant the absolute world.” After that: “It was party time.
” Mia swapped the heavy skirts of her Pronovias gown for a bridal minidress and hit the dancefloor with her new husband and all of the people they love most. “I think it was probably a 4am finish,” says the star, who has been squeezing in recovery naps between filming now that she’s back on set. “I definitely feel more grown-up,” she ponders of her first days of married life.
“But I can’t wear my wedding band because I’m filming, which is quite annoying. I’m like, did that just happen? Did I dream it? I just want to do it all over again. We’re definitely going to have to have a massive first anniversary party.
”.
