MobLand star Lisa Dwan marries Paul Henninger in star-studded wedding

Hand in hand with her new husband, Lisa Dwan makes a beautiful bride in a breathtaking Vivienne Westwood dress. 

Enjoying their first few moments as a married couple, she and Paul Henninger look blissfully happy after tying the knot in a low-key ceremony with family and close friends at its heart.

However, it’s a scene that Lisa, 48, never thought would happen. Content with her job as an actress and as an academic at Princeton University – a combination that took her frequently between London and the US – she had always felt that marriage and motherhood weren’t in her future. 

Until she met Paul. Six years after falling in love, the couple – who have a four-year-old daughter, Luna; Paul has a daughter, Lola, 21, from a previous relationship – celebrated their love with a showstopping wedding in central London. “I never thought any of this would happen to me,” Top Boy star Lisa tells HELLO!. “We are a mad, happy family and I never thought any of it was on the cards.”

After their ceremony at the “jewel box” Fitzrovia Chapel, Lisa and Paul partied with their guests at the nearby pub The Devonshire, a celebrity haunt favoured by stars including Margot Robbie and Lewis Capaldi. Both the ceremony and the reception were exclusively covered by HELLO!. 

“We had an absolute ball,” Lisa says. “It was incredible. The day just kept getting better and better.” Paul, a partner at KPMG who hails from the US, adds: “Any one of the moments – the songs or the dance or the toast – would have made the whole day incredible. To have them all one after another was amazing.”

Celebrity guests

Naturally, given Lisa’s theatre and TV pedigree – she has starred in MobLand and is widely regarded as a leading interpreter of the works of Samuel Beckett, whose plays she frequently performs on stage – their guests included some famous names.  Among those invited were Geri Halliwell Horner, Laura Whitmore and her husband, Iain Stirling, and the TV chef Clodagh McKenna. 

During the service, the Irish poet Paul Muldoon recited a poem that he had written for the couple. The Love Actually star Bill Nighy also read a poem, Valentine by John Fuller, and Lucian Freud’s daughter Susie Boyt recited lyrics from Cole Porter’s song You’ve Got That Thing. The singer Imelda May and the Hothouse Flowers frontman Liam Ó Maonlaí performed at both the ceremony and the reception.

On the wedding day, the bride got ready at home, with Luna and Lola helping her into a white corseted Vivienne Westwood gown, which featured a train and short skirt, and which she paired with Dolce & Gabbana boots. “It’s got a bit of a London kick to it because it’s short,” she says. “I think it’s got a rebellious streak. I knew it was the perfect dress immediately.” 

She changed into a cream lace Paco Rabanne gown and Jimmy Choo heels for the reception, accessorising with magnetic flower hair accessories by Jennifer Behr and a Simone Rocha handbag.

An very special wedding party

Their wedding party consisted of just two special people: Luna and Lola. Lola, wearing a blue dress from Reformation, acted as Lisa’s bridesmaid, while Luna took on the duties of flower girl and ring bearer. As the ceremony began, the bride walked up the aisle with a family friend, Gerald Davidson, while a string quartet played Bach’s Arioso from Cantata BWV 156. 

Lisa and Paul first heard the piece of music while on holiday in Italy and it moved them to tears; they later asked the quartet to learn the piece for their wedding day. 

Paul says he cried when he saw his bride for the first time. “She looked stunning, and so happy. We’d had a plan and I knew what was going to happen, but to be in the moment was incredibly magical. ” Lisa adds: “Walking down the aisle, I was so nervous, but then I locked eyes with Paul and I was fine.”

The couple both wrote their own vows for the service, which was conducted by Linda Watkins from Westminster Council. After being declared husband and wife, and slipping wedding bands by David Yurman on to each other’s fingers, the newlyweds celebrated with a kiss. 

Then it was off to the reception. Guests travelled in a traditional Routemaster bus, while the bride and groom were driven in a vintage car. 

Inside The Devonshire, guests were greeted by a ceilidh band and “the best Guinness in London” before sitting down to a meal of steak tartare, beef fillet and sticky toffee pudding.  An impressive wedding cake – a white three-tiered dried-fruit creation decorated with flowers from the Luminary Bakery – was also served.

A ‘sliding doors’ moment

The couple began dating six years ago, having met when Paul went to the Jermyn Street Theatre in London to see a performance of a Beckett piece that featured Lisa’s voice. Romance didn’t blossom until 2020, however, when Lisa experienced a “sliding doors” moment just as the first Covid-19 lockdown was about to begin.  

“I had just finished filming in London and I was going to New York, on the last flight out of the city before lockdown,” she says. “Paul had rung me that morning, because we’d become friends, asking how I was going to get from JFK Airport to where I was going. 

“He organised a car for me, and I said: ‘Why would you do that?’ He said: ‘Because I think you’re an amazing person. I want to make sure you’re OK.’

“I said to him: ‘I’m clearly making a terrible mistake here, so if I am, come find me,’ to which he said: ‘I might just do that.’ Then I had an overwhelming urge to get off [the plane]. I asked the air hostess if I could take my bags off.  

“I rang Paul and he said: ‘Are you on the plane?’ I said: ‘No, I’m in a taxi back to Hampstead. Would you like to come around for some stew?’” 

The couple got engaged earlier this year after Paul proposed in the middle of John F Kennedy International Airport. And neither can believe their good luck in finding each other.  

“I can’t believe I’m somebody who wears matching pyjamas at Christmas,” Lisa says. “When I hear ‘mum’ and I realise Luna’s calling me, I still pinch myself It’s been very seamless and lovely.”