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By Diana Cercone
If there’s an official Bucks County Doyenne of Parties it is Sharon Maida. There are fewer things she loves more than hosting parties at the gracious Newtown home she shares with her husband, James, or at their beach house in New Jersey. Themed parties, such as the Halloween masquerade luncheon for 10 of her girlfriends, are her specialty. Give her the slightest reason and she happily responds with creative decorations and a menu to match that never fail to delight her guests.
I recently sat down with Sharon in her home to talk about the first of the parties she gave this year. The consummate hostess, she had prepared a tea service, complete with beautiful and tempting miniature pastries from Colonial Farms Gourmet & Food Market in Washington Crossing, and had set them on the dining room table in anticipation of our interview. A selection of sparkling waters, a crystal ice bucket and glasses were at the ready on a sideboard.
After accepting a glass of Evian, I came right to the point and asked what her party-giving average was? “At least one party a month,” she says, smiling at the many happy memories over the years. “Sometimes two.” And that’s not counting the numerous lunches for eight or 10 friends she and her husband host outside under their pergola, she says. Nor the frequent gatherings at their home with family.
Sharon and James have four grown children: Nick, Lindsay, Lauren, and Alexis. And Sharon has two sisters, their husbands and their children and James has an equally close family. Add to the mix, the Maidas’ circle of friends. And you’d be right to say the Maidas’ home is party central to both their family and friends.
During the pandemic, Sharon says, there were no such intimate gatherings or large themed parties. But once she and James and everyone in her family were vaccinated, it was time to throw open the party doors once again, she says. And there was no better reason or time to celebrate than her mother’s upcoming 80th birthday.
“It was a dual celebration,” Sharon says. They could all gather, hug and kiss each other without masks or social distancing while feting their much loved mother and grandmother, Dolores. Everyone couldn’t wait. The date of the birthday celebration was a Saturday in June, and, as if the Fates had agreed as well, it was the exact date of her mother’s birthday: June 12.
It was strictly a family affair. Though the buzz word was already out, Save the Date emails were sent out to their four children, her sisters and their husbands and their children about six weeks before. Invitations, which a friend had hand written in calligraphy, followed in the mail two weeks later.
In all, not including Sharon and James or her mother, 16 family members were invited, and 16 accepted. As the honorary guest, Sharon’s mother, Dolores, received her own special invite, bringing the total to 21. (Nick and another of the grandsons accepted adding their girlfriends as well as the newly wed granddaughter accepting with her husband.)
Those simple acts were enough to start Sharon’s creative party juices flowing.
Though it was to be a simple family get together, to Sharon, because of its dual significance —her mom’s 80th and the first time all could be together safely vaccinated—it called for something more. She came up with the theme: Casual Elegance. Once verbalized, her color scheme followed: apricot, creams and French blue.
As a rule, Sharon uses local vendors whenever she can. Her mother’s party was no exception. After ordering the invitations, place cards and dessert napkins from Tempus Cards & Gifts in Peddler’s Village. Her next call was to Brillman’s Rental Barn in Newtown. A long dining table—large enough to accommodate everyone comfortably—was ordered, along with French blue linens and gold-colored chairs. Although Sharon has Waterford crystal champagne flutes, after conferring with Co-owner and Event Manager Mary Beth Brillman, she took her advice and ordered their celebratory toast glasses. “‘Not everyone likes champagne,’ Mary Beth had advised,” Sharon says. “So the celebratory glasses were the perfect size to raise a toast.”
By this time she had a vision of what she wanted. For decorations, she ordered three extra-large, apricot balloons from Party Fair in Newtown. Balloons typically tout a fun party, Sharon says, but she was aiming for something more elegant, while still saying fun. The three 24-inch apricot balloons filled the bill, rising gracefully above the party area.
To complete the decorations, again Sharon went with simple but elegant. Cream-colored roses tinged in apricot were ordered from Pod Shop Flowers in New Hope. From her garden she would use cream-colored hydrangeas with just the slightest hints of green, and apricot Hypericum berry stems, white alstroemerias from McCaffrey’s. She then would add a few yellow roses to heighten the color palate— creating enchanting flower vases for the table. Another specialty—and signature—of Sharon’s is flower arranging. (While an undergraduate at Kutztown University, she worked at a floral shop and, later, while taking graduate courses at the University of Hawaii, she took a class in flower arrangement.)
Once her stage was set, she says, she could concentrate on the menu. Cocktail hour would consist of a two-foot long by two-foot wide charcuterie tray, mini-crab cakes, cucumber sandwiches and miniature hot dogs wrapped in puff pastry with parmesan cheese on top. These were served at her appetizer table outside, dressed in a French blue tablecloth and more flowers, with wine, sparkling water and more Veuve Clicquot Brut champagne poured generously throughout. This time the champagne was served in Sharon’s Waterford Crystal champagne flutes.
For dinner, guests would start with a summer salad and assorted breads. Herb-roasted tenderloin of beef would be accompanied by garden roasted potatoes, glazed carrots and roasted broccoli. And for wine, Sharon and her husband James dipped into their wine cellar for vintage wines they had been saving for a special occasion from their trip to California wine country years ago: 2014 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from Castello di Amororosa and 2015 Sonoma Valley, Reserve, Chardonnay from St. Chateau St. Jean. Birthday cake and assorted sweets would round out the menu. Simple, yet elegant.
Though she has used caterers before, for her mother’s 80th, Sharon, a gourmet cook in her own right, wanted to prepare the food herself. Her daughters—out of love for their mother and grandmother—jumped at the chance to help with the food. Menu items were divvied up. Sharon’s daughters were in charge of the charcuterie board with Lauren also roasting the vegetables, as well as making the hand-dipped chocolate-covered strawberries served along with the birthday cake.
For the cake, she says, she turned to Traci Straube, bakery manager at McCaffrey’s. “I knew she would understand what I wanted,” she says. “She did a beautiful job, decorating with apricot flowers, and the cake was delicious.”
Now for the photographer. Here, Sharon says, she hesitated. She knew her daughter Lindsay was also a photographer, but she says, “I wanted her to enjoy the party and not be taking photos during it.” Lindsay had other thoughts. And managed to both enjoy the party and capture its intimacy and joy in her photographs.
The evening before the party, Sharon arranged the flower vases. To prevent them from opening prematurely, she placed them in a refrigerator and removed them in the morning. The table was also set. Adorning the table were old photos of Dolores when she was in her 20s through her 50s, including one of her mother sporting cat-eye sunglasses and her husband (Sharon’s father), James O’Mara in Atlantic City. Sharon had them reproduced in sepia and placed in 4 X 6 silver frames.
“They were a huge hit,” she says, “especially among the grandchildren as they listened enraptured by the stories the photos elicited.”
Minutes before guests arrived, Sharon placed a wrist corsage, consisting of two delicate white roses tinged in apricot on a two-strand pearl bracelet, on her mother.
As guests arrived, one of the two servers that day, Gina, greeted them with celebratory glasses of Veuve Clicquot Brut. After raising their glasses in a toast to Dolores, they proceeded to the backyard to fête her in style.
Once guests were seated for dinner, and their empty salad plates removed, so were their dinner plates. These were plated in the kitchen with the vegetables and then returned in front of each guest. Tom, the other server and an accomplished cook, had roasted the three filets of beef to a perfect rare, medium and well doneness. Arranging them on a platter from rare to well, he went around the table, offering each guest their choice.
It was a glorious family celebration—one ending in gathering around the birthday cake and singing in full voice “Happy Birthday to Dolores.”
“I have given countless parties under threats of thunderstorms or those that left the grounds soggy or the air heavy with unbearable heat and humidity. But this day was perfect,” Sharon says. “I was due for good weather—low humidity and a light breeze.” Again, the Fates had agreed.
Diana Cercone is an area freelance writer who specializes in food, art and travel.