It was no accident when William Garofalo met Francesca “Frankie” Allegra at Northwestern University. Will first came across Frankie on Facebook, and after a few months of stalling, a mutual friend took matters into his own hands. “He quite literally shoved me into her at a party,” Will remembers. “By the grace of divine intervention, I somehow managed an apology, some playful banter, and a casual early departure.”
A week after the couple’s animated meet-cute, Will and Frankie shared their first date. “We were pretty inseparable for those final months of college; however, I didn’t think it would amount to much because I had accepted a job offer in Paris,” Frankie shares. “Little did I know, I just couldn’t shake the guy!” After weeks of long-distance text chains and FaceTime calls, Will and Frankie made their relationship official, despite being an ocean apart.
Five-and-a-half years later, Will organized a day of “greatest hits”—a choose-your-own adventure featuring all of Frankie’s favorite activities. That evening, Will showed Frankie a video chronicling their relationship—“tiny moments I’d been holding onto for years,” he says. By the time the video ended, Frankie found Will in their bedroom on one knee. The two toasted their engagement with a beachside picnic in Orange County, California.
The couple chose Castello di Cafaggio in Tuscany for their summer ceremony. “I always knew I wanted to get married in Italy because my parents are Italian immigrants, and I grew up spending summers there with my extended family—it’s where I feel most at home,” Frankie shares. “The rambling vineyards, the food, and the landscape all felt simultaneously rugged and elegant.” Planner Marilena Zambelli beautifully executed every detail of the destination weekend.
Frankie’s initial idea of a dream wedding dress was Lupita Nyong’o’s powder blue Prada gown that she wore to the 2014 Oscars. While she had always envisioned something non-traditional, it turned out that “the call of the white dress was too strong.” While vacationing on the Ligurian coast of Italy, the bride’s grandmother persuaded her to visit Atelier Emé, a bridal boutique in San Remo. Frankie fell in love with a dress from the shop’s own line. “The second I tried on the dress, my nonna and I agreed it was the one,” the bride recalls.
Frankie accessorized the look with a pair of Dolce & Gabbana carretto heels and Fabien Ajzenberg pearl drop earrings that she found while walking in the Marais. “Something felt romantic about having a little piece of Paris—the city where I fell in love with Will—with me on our wedding day,” Frankie notes. The groom wore a custom Hall Madden tuxedo and a pair of black velvet smoking slippers.
On June 18, 2022, Frankie got ready with Noemi of Your Beauty Team. Frankie’s high school English teacher, Holly Thompson, officiated the ceremony. Holly opened with a reference from E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View—the story of a young couple who find love on an Italian hillside. She said, “Anyone who has spent any time with Frankie and Will in the last few years knows that their life together exemplifies comradeship and is full of poetry and tenderness”—the things for which you marry, according to the book. Following the sweet dedication, the bride and groom exchanged vows. “I’ve rarely felt as calm as I did standing in front of everyone I love, declaring my intentions for Will,” Frankie recalls.
After the ceremony, guests enjoyed a cocktail hour replete with a mozzarella bar, cured meats, and passed hors d’oeuvres before dinner in the courtyard. A three-course pasta tasting featured paccheri with green pea sauce and bottarga, eggplant and tomato coulis, as well as a buckwheat maltagliati with duck ragout, rosemary, and orange zest. Everyone sipped espresso surrounded by Roberto Fiori bougainvillea and Laura Mazzetti calligraphy, as Will delivered a charming, yet “earnestly error-riddled” speech in Italian—the thoughtful attempt alone was enough to leave Frankie’s family utterly delighted. Afterward, a millefoglie with Chantilly cream and fresh berries was served. The newlyweds added the finishing touch, a sprinkle of powdered sugar.
During the reception, Frankie and Will danced to “May I Have This Dance” by Francis and the Lights. “We wanted to do something a bit non-traditional with it, which is why we fully choreographed a routine, with very limited technical experience, in our living room,” Frankie says. Needless to say, guests were thrilled! Afterward, the party carried on all night long with Kaleydo Entertainment. The next day, the couple jetted off for a two-week tour around Sicily.
