Letter From the Editor
If ever a wedding deserved its own special issue, it's Madeline Brewer and Jack Thompson-Roylance's. Despite the bride's busy filming and promotion schedule for The Handmaid's Tale and You, Madeline and Jack planned the entire wedding themselves (Jack says his new wife has a future in professional planning!). Their big day was nothing short of spectacular, and it was exactly what guests attending a summer wedding want: a celebration that's equal parts emotional and fun.
And with summer wedding season still going strong, I invite you to get inspired by Madeline and Jack's stunning day before browsing our editor-approved ideas and advice for throwing the ultimate seasonal fête.
— Gabriella Rello Duffy, senior editorial director
After canceling on him twice before, Madeline Brewer was late for her first date with Jack Thompson-Roylance. “I met her outside the bar, and with the street lights behind her, she looked like an angel,” he recalls. Then, things took a turn. “I said, ‘Hi Madeline,’ and she looked at me and went, ‘It’s Maddie.’ And I thought, Oh, this is not off to a good start.”
Like so many modern couples, Madeline and Jack matched on a dating app in 2022. The Handmaid’s Tale star had temporarily traded her home base in Los Angeles for London and was only going to be in town for about six months. She decided to see what—or rather, who—was out there. When she came across Jack’s profile, she sent off a message asking if he’d want to get together for ramen or sushi, as both had listed Asian cuisine as their favorite foods on their respective profiles. His opening message back? “Marry me.” “I hated that! How cringe?” Madeline laughs now. “How was I supposed to respond to a guy who just said marry me after I asked if he wanted to meet up for food?”
That wasn’t enough to dissuade her, though, and Madeline kept up with the conversation. The two developed an easy digital rapport and exchanged messages for a few weeks, but planning a formal date proved challenging: Madeline’s busy schedule (she was starring as Sally Bowles in a West End revival of Cabaret) meant she had just a handful of days off each month; the two tried to get together twice before, but she had to back out at the last-minute each time. When Madeline finally arrived for their long-awaited date (45 minutes late if you ask him, but only 20 if you ask her) and found Jack smiling at her outside that bar, she noticed two things: First, that he was incredibly handsome; second, that he had a chipped front tooth.
She asks me if I remember the early 2000s MTV show Next, during which contestants bail out on a bad date by screaming “Next!” whenever they see fit. I do, I laugh. “He smiled and I saw that he had a half tooth and my brain went, ‘Next!’” What made her stay? “He was really cute,” she deadpans. “Plus, I traveled all that way and he was wearing this nice button-down shirt. He’s really charming and English, and was so suave.”
Madeline told herself she’d stay for one drink, but as soon as they started chatting, it was clear their easy digital communication wasn’t a fluke—these two had a spark, and the one drink Madeline committed to ultimately turned into a movie (Moonage Daydream) and popcorn (which Madeline ate daintily and Jack spilled all over his lap), which then led to martinis at Soho House on Greek Street, which finally concluded with couple’s first kiss. It was a near-perfect first date, especially considering the fact that it almost didn’t happen at all.
Their second date was somehow even better. “Madeline managed to totally trump me,” Jack says. “I was aware that she was an actress, but I hadn’t really clocked the full extent of what she was doing.” So, when Madeline offhandedly invited him to come see her show (that show being Cabaret, in which she starred alongside Callum Scott Howells), Jack happily took her up on the offer. “I’ll never forget it. The emcee introduces her character, everyone claps, the spotlight goes down, a plinth rises up, and Maddie’s there, holding a pose with a cigarette in her mouth and I literally felt my jaw hit my feet,” Jack says. “It was like something out of Notting Hill. All I could think was, Who is this woman?”
In many ways, Notting Hill is a good approximation for their relationship—Madeline is an American actress who is as talented as she is gracious and lovely, and she did leave Jack feeling absolutely starstruck from the moment he laid eyes on her. For his part, Jack is British, brunette, and every bit as romantic as Hugh Grant’s William Thacker, but the similarities end there. Jack isn’t a quiet bookstore owner, sitting on the sidelines while his American dream girl makes art. Instead, he and his brother own a production company called Deadbeat Films (the movie theater the couple visited on their first date just so happened to have signage for a film he produced on display), and he’s an accomplished photographer.
Their relationship reads like a script for the next Nancy Meyers rom-com: The initial spark they felt on their first few dates ignited into a hot, bright flame, and the two fell in love quickly and deeply, becoming as inseparable as it’s possible to be when one partner lives in London and the other calls Los Angeles home. At the end of 2023, Madeline decided it was time to move to a city that would bring her even slightly closer to Jack, and she bought her dream apartment in New York City, cutting the flight time between the two nearly in half.
The distance was certainly much more manageable, but it wasn’t good enough for Jack: After 14 months together, he was ready to commit to a lifetime together. On January 3, 2024, after days of telling Madeline they had lunch plans with friends, he popped the question in Central Park while a live musician played “Lover You Should've Come Over” by Jeff Buckley, one of the couple’s favorite songs. When he got down on one knee and showed Madeline the ring (vintage, which Jack sourced in London’s Hatton Garden district), all she could say was, “Is that real?” “It was the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen in my entire life!” Madeline says. Afterwards, they had martinis at Bemmelman's and FaceTimed their families to share the good news.
Though they’ve never called the same city home and won’t until later this year, the couple knew they wanted to get married in the U.K., where they met and fell in love. “Knowing where Jack’s from and knowing what the southwest of England looks like, I would have wanted to get married there no matter what,” Madeline notes. And though Madeline certainly didn’t have to twist Jack’s arm into exchanging vows near to where he grew up, he admits it didn’t matter to him where the wedding took place—just that he got to marry Madeline. “I would have married Maddie in Timbuktu if she wanted to, but the fact that she wanted to celebrate us in Somerset meant a huge amount to me,” he adds. “Of course, I’m biased, but it is the most special place.”
The couple, who tied the knot on July 12, 2025, intentionally chose not to work with a wedding planner—“If she wasn’t an actress, Maddie would be an amazing wedding planner,” Jack says—opting to organize the details and bring their team together all on their own. The biggest challenge they faced? Planning from different time zones and grappling with the exchange rate, but even those obstacles couldn’t tamp down the couple’s excitement. “Planning was, in retrospect, a great deal of fun!” Madeline says. “It brought Jack and I close although we were often 3,000 miles away. I loved designing the color palette and meeting wonderful haberdashers in Somerset.”
The fact that Madeline did this all while still maintaining her filming and press schedules was even more incredible—even to her future husband. “Considering the fact that Maddie did all this while balancing two hit TV shows, I think it’s remarkable,” the groom says.
In the months leading up to the wedding, the couple described their July 12, 2025, big-day aesthetic as Bridgerton by day, Saltburn by night, a fitting vibe for a celebration that took place at North Cadbury Court, a stunning manor house in Somerset, just a few hours outside of London and 20 minutes from where Jack was born and raised. It also makes sense when you understand Madeline and Jack’s wedding priorities: Planning a beautiful, personalized ceremony was paramount, but so was throwing a reception to remember. “Jack and I both love a party,” Madeline says.
As they solidified the details of the big day, another overarching theme emerged: English wildflowers. “What you see and feel when you look at a field full of wildflowers is ultimately what inspired our color palette and aesthetic,” Madeline explains. They also took cues from Glastonbury Festival’s iconic “Ribbon Tower,” which led the bride to source countless ribbons for the evening’s décor.
The details were all well and good, but Madeline and Jack remained hyper-focused on the reason why they were planning an event at all. “At the end of the day, it's just about celebrating how much we love each other, how much we want to be together, and bringing our families together from different countries,” Madeline says.
On the big day, Jack’s twin brother and business partner, Boris, officiated the ceremony; a few weeks before the wedding, the three met for dinner to go over the script, and Jack says he and his bride-to-be were both moved to tears over Boris’s words. “It’s going to be a wonderful bit of a juxtaposition to then hear how he's going to roast me with his best man's speech,” the groom laughs.
A unity ceremony was an integral part of their vow exchange: Madeline’s maid of honor brought a candle from New Jersey, where she’s originally from, and Jack brought one from Somerset so that they could “light a flame of unity and love,” the groom describes. This was just one of many traditions Jack was looking forward to in the weeks leading up to the wedding. “I think I’ve just totally accepted that I’m a hopeless romantic and always have been,” he says. “I love the tradition. I’ve really basked in it.”
Another ceremony must-have for the bride and groom? A group sing-along, during which Boris invited the couple’s family members and friends to perform a live rendition of “This Must Be the Place” by the Talking Heads right before Madeline and Jack swapped vows. “Ceremonies can feel a little somber,” Jack says, “so we wanted to break that tension up a bit.”
In the end, Madeline and Jack melded wedding tradition and their unique history at every turn, creating their own rules for the big day. Though they skipped a first look (“The first time he sees me in a wedding dress will be when I trot down the aisle,” Madeline says), the couple did opt to spend the night before the wedding together, something they agreed was essential for a long-distance couple. “We spend enough time apart,” the bride notes. “I’m going to spend as much time with this man as I can.”
Madeline is a “vintage girl” through and through, so though she was willing to try on a few brand-new gowns, she always knew she’d wear something secondhand. Beyond that, she hadn’t given much thought to what her wedding dress would look like. She initially thought she’d wear her mom’s wedding dress, but with her busy filming and promotion schedules for The Handmaid’s Tale and You, time got away from her. In the end, she visited Happy Isles, a vintage bridal shop with locations in New York City and Los Angeles, and found the dress she didn’t even know she had been looking for: a strapless Vera Wang Luxe gown that the shop thinks dates back to 2005. “I’m really proud that I’m giving a bridal dress new life,” Madeline says.
And that wasn’t her only vintage look of the weekend: For their Friday evening welcome party, Madeline donned a vintage Tom Ford for Gucci look with lace flowers, which she found at Tab Vintage. After the ceremony concluded on the big day, Madeline traded her Vera Wang number for a vintage Valentino gown from Shrimpton Couture.
Like every other part of the wedding, Madeline and Jack carefully curated their reception décor and their menu. Tables were topped with hand-painted candles and ribbons. The couple's signature drinks were named in honor of quotes from their favorite David Lynch films (“We're both massive cinephiles and fans of the great late David Lynch,” Jack notes), like the “In Heaven, Everything Is Fine” (a negroni) and “Damn Fine Cup of Coffee” (an espresso martini). Dinner was catered by Pit & Plate, who prepared pit-roasted selections like dry-aged beef striploin, smoked aubergine Caponata, and grilled artichokes.
And their wedding cake? There were two: The first was a fake “human-sized cake,” which held part of the evening’s musical entertainment: Faux Real, a band helmed by Jack’s college friends, which has quickly become one of his and Madeline’s favorites. “They’re so fun,” Madeline says. “I’m so excited for our families and friends to see our favorite band and really get together and get to know each other.” The second dessert? “Costco sheet cakes,” Madeline tells me. “They’re delicious.”
After, the couple shared their first dance to Elvis Presley’s “Blue Moon,” which then led straight into an all-night dance party. “As Jack dipped me, our DJ, Lea, started up ‘Let’s Dance’ by David Bowie as everyone joined us on the dance floor,” Madeline says. “We also had a drum and bass power hour in the disco cellar! It was a great little nod to Jack's days going to clubs in Bristol. Some of our favorite nights are staying up too late with our closest friends at Glastonbury Festival listening to drum and bass.”
As for what’s next for the newlyweds? The bride’s priority is finally living in the same time zone as her husband and getting to soak up the next stage of their lives together. “I have loved calling Jack my fiancé, but I’m really excited for us to be husband and wife,” Madeline says. For Jack? “I’d like to see some little Jacks and Maddies running around in the future.
But the couple isn’t jumping ahead too fast. They’re also reveling in the here and now. Before we ended our call, Jack asked if he could share a piece of advice with future couples, and it’s exactly what you’d expect from a self-proclaimed hopeless romantic. “All of my friends told me that the wedding day goes by in a flash, so you really need to be mindful of that and enjoy all of the pieces surrounding it,” he says. “Our food tasting, my parents going to New York to meet Maddie’s for the first time. That’s what getting married is: It’s the whole ritual surrounding the wedding day. It’s been such a wonderful few months of my life, and I’m so grateful for it and so grateful for this wonderful girl.”
