LaRositaMonita tells me about her tight-knit Philly board, family and (most important) fiancé.

Posted Tuesday, May 12, 2009 3:35 PM

Knot Name: LaRositaMonita  

Wedding Date: August 7, 2009

Knot Annie: Tell me about the Knotties on your board that you post on. Have you ever joined them for a GTG?

LaRositaMonita: I frequent my local board (Philadelphia) and my club board (August 2009). Both boards have been excellent resources for planning my wedding. It’s been wonderful having a community of other brides (and even a groom or two!) to lean on during this monumental undertaking.
Even better, however, have been the friendships I’ve made through The Knot. The girls on the Philadelphia board host frequent get-togethers, and I’ve been meeting up with some of the Knotties there on a monthly basis. Plans are well underway for some of us to make appearances at one another’s weddings! More wonderful still is a large August ’09 GTG being tentatively planned in Philadelphia. I was recently able to have dinner with two girls there who live close by, and we had a wonderful time.

KA: Describe your wedding.

LaRositaMonita: My fiance and I have been together for nearly seven years, so our wedding is all about formalizing a commitment that we’ve already made to one another and saying “thank you” to all those who’ve supported us throughout our relationship. We want our wedding to reflect our friends, our families, and us, and we want it to be fun. Our main wedding color is a vibrant Kelly green (my fiance’s and my mutual favorite color), and our flowers will provide bright accents of yellow, orange, pink, and lime. Our engagement photos (featuring our dog!) will be in our guest book frame and in our table numbers. We’re involving some close family and friends in a few aspects of our ceremony and are looking forward to everyone having a fantastic time.

KA: How have the Knotties on your board helped you plan?

LaRositaMonita: Nearly all my vendors were recommended to me by girls on the Philadelphia board, and the girls on the August ’09 board have been invaluable in helping me stay motivated to keep up with each wedding planning task. The support, sympathy, and friendship of all the Knottie friends I’ve made have really been the most valuable thing I’ll take away from my time on The Knot. I hope that the connections I’ve made with others will last long after my married life begins!

KA: Favorite bio on The Knot and why?

LaRositaMonita: I don’t frequently visit too many Knottie bios, but two friends from August 2009 stand out to me for sure. sreihing's wedding reminds me so much of my own it’s uncanny, and looking at her bio makes me wish I could join her on her big day! Leo713's bio is fun and so reflective of her and her fiance. Better yet, it allowed my own fiance to reconnect with her -- they were close friends in high school, but drifted apart and hadn’t seen or spoken to one another in quite a while. The Knot enabled them to see one another for the first time in seven years just this past weekend!

KA: Best vendor that you’ve worked with and why?

LaRositaMonita: I have so many wonderful vendors, it’s difficult to choose. Our officiant, Maria Odilia Romeu from Journeys of the Heart, has been incredible to work with and has created a ceremony for us that captures the essence of what we want our wedding to be all about. Our initial meeting with her had both my fiance and me in tears, and we knew right away we wanted her to be the one to marry us.

If I may share, however, two “vendors” have extra-special significance. My brother is a wedding photographer and generously offered to take engagement photos for my fiance and me. We went back to my alma mater and had a very special afternoon taking some wonderful photos that I’ll treasure forever. Additionally, two of my dearest friends will be playing piano and violin during our ceremony for us. I can’t wait to walk up the aisle to Ben Folds’ “The Luckiest” as played by two of the most important people in my life.

KA: What will make your wedding stand out to your guests, and where did you find the inspiration?

LaRositaMonita: We hope that the atmosphere of fun, friends, family, and celebration will really come through on our wedding day. Although the day is ostensibly about us, we want our friends and family to see how much they’ve impacted our lives and our relationship. Whether it’s incorporating elements of Jewish tradition for my mother and godmother, donating to charities that mean a lot to us as favors, or posting photo albums of our favorite memories on our wedding website, we hope that at the end of the night people will know how much they mean to us. As such, our own families, friends, and loved ones were ultimately our greatest source of inspiration.

KA: What are you looking forward to most on your wedding day?

LaRositaMonita: Having all the people we love most in one place celebrating with us. I’m also looking forward to seeing my fiance for the first time right before our ceremony and having a private moment to take some special photos and anticipate the wonderful commitment we’re about to formally make to one another. (He’s going to look so handsome!)

Thank you so much  LaRositaMonita! I think that walking down the aisle will be so awesome for you. I love the song, piano and violin music -- the fact that it will be performed by such important people will be that much better.