Producer, writer, and actress Cece King auditioned for a movie in Los Angeles and didn’t get the part, but after the film was released, a producer from the movie suggested she meet the writer’s sister, Cinzia Fabrizi, who owns a roofing company and was in town working on a book during her “off season.” “He set us up on a blind date, throwing us an elaborate dinner party in the Brentwood Hills. It felt like something out of a movie, with the expectation that we would fall in love. And we did!” says Cece. After a year and a few months of dating, Cinzia proposed while at a water-front restaurant in Boston on their way to Martha’s Vineyard to see Cece’s family.
The original plan was to have a desert-chic wedding in Palm Springs, but none of the venues there really sold them on the idea, and most of their family is on the East Coast or in Toronto. Since all the Americans seemed to want to go to Canada, and since Cinzia is Canadian and her family was already there, they chose Toronto.
For their venue, they landed on Graydon Hall Manor, a Scottish mansion— Cece’s father, who passed away on 9/11, had Scottish family, so it was a sentimental and perfect fit. Fun fact: the manor was also heavily featured in the first episode of the sixth season of Schitt’s Creek. To help plan their al fresco, chic, garden house party, they relied on their in-house planner, Ashley Yim, and Cece’s mother, interior designer Judy King.
Once engaged, Cece knew that she wanted to wear a Pronovias gown. Her mom and sister flew into L.A. to make a whole weekend out of dress shopping, but the first look she tried on turned out to be the one. She paired the dress with Nicholas Kirkwood pearl-accented heels and had a piece of her dad’s kilt sewn into her veil as her “something old.”
Cinzia also knew what designer she wanted to put on and went to Konstantine Malishevski at GOTSTYLE in downtown Toronto for her custom, silk and Italian wool suit with a subtle camouflage pattern. Both of their custom rings were from Sarah Wan at The Devil’s Workshop, and the couple loved her so much that she attended the wedding and they’ve remained friends.
On the morning-of, Cece asked her closest friends to come early for a first look, and she gifted them custom silver bomber jackets and cat-eye sunnies. After their champagne toast, it was off to the aisle! The couple had decided to roll out a red carpet in front of the manor’s entrance, so their guests could feel as special as the day.
Cinzia walked first down the aisle with her father to “Under Pressure,” played by a string quartet and followed by the rest of the wedding party, then Cece and her step-dad processed to Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody.” “We had a very close family friend, Cindy Linville, as the officiant. It was powerful. A lot of women up there!” Cece explains. Once they had their first kiss as a married couple, the cocktail hour started on the terrace.
After the outdoor, seated three-course meal, guests dined on an array of sweets, rather than a cake. “After the seven weddings we had been to in the past year, we never remembered the cake cutting, and after much deliberation, we chose mini cookies and tiramisu and an assortment of desserts and fruit. It was more our style,” Cece says.
In between dinner and speeches, Cinzia booked an Italian accordion player, Claudio, to play. “It was so special to see my 80-year-old, Irish grandmother dance with Cinzia’s beautiful Italian Zia (her Aunt),” Cece says.
Then, for the Jersey girl inside of Cece and because Cinzia’s favorite movie is Jerry Maguire, the newlyweds had their first dance to Bruce Springsteen’s “Secret Garden.” For the rest of the party, Cece changed into a deep cowl-neck, silk mini dress, styled by her friend, Sonja Christensen.
They danced to Fleetwood Mac, old school hip-hop, techno, Jay-Z, and “some Drake of course because it’s Canada after all” until two in the morning.
