Parties allow us to share a beautiful atmosphere, great food and fun with our favorite people, and also to seal landmark occasions in memory. Milestones like bridal showers, birthdays and anniversaries are even more momentous with the addition of unique and extravagant elements. Let's grab every chance we can to come together over something to celebrate, and do it in style with these local resources.
Bakery Bounty
Cakes, pastries and other baked goodies are a staple of any celebration. Let the Valley's bakers crown your affair with eye-catching confections.
Celebrate in abundance with Let Them Eat Cake's graze cakes, surrounded by drifts of additional goodies like little cupcakes, cakesicles, cookies and macarons. Let Them Eat Cake takes inspiration from the Baroque and Rococo eras to offer ebullient floral and themed cake designs while specializing in macarons so extravagant and unique each one is like a little party in itself.
Treats from The Modern Bakery in Easton have a clean, classy aesthetic. That said, they can turn out macarons in a wonderful and whimsical array of shapes and colors perfect for your party's look.
Piece ‘a Cake in Macungie is known for flawless wedding cakes and also bakes for any occasion, from cupcakes and macarons to novelty cakes of sculpted fondant.
For custom cakes, cannoli, doughnuts and more sweet treats, Cake & Corolla makes show-stopping desserts in their Easton bakery/cafe. The style is creative and classic, from brownie sandwiches and sticky buns to multi-tier cakes.
Decorated Cookies
So customizable and just itching to be Instagrammed, decorated cookies really put a point on a party's theme and give guests something to nibble on. The intricate art of these local bakers is evident in cookies so vibrant and detailed you can barely stand to bite into them, be they decked with bright Baby Sharks, dreamy florals or ornate calligraphy.
@sugar_mere | @fullybakeddd | @batchsheetcrazy | @baked_on_promise | @mycookiehaven
A Bar, But Better
Drinks are expected at all sorts of parties, but for a truly impressive shindig, these mobile bars take it up several notches.
Lovers of local vintages can bring a selection of locally produced wine, cocktails and beer served from the Easton Wine Project's Wine Wagon, a sleek black trailer with bartender included. For more rustic charm, best friends Candice and Brittany bring a sweet little white horse trailer with wood accents to serve your drinks of choice with The Backyard Bar Co. Horse trailers make perfect mobile bars, which is why Presley's Cocktail Bar offers another incarnation, deep green and gleaming with a more masculine vibe.
For the beer-forward event, Tap Truck Keystone is a truly unique option. This buff-colored 1951 Jeep sports a vintage look and four taps sticking right out of the side.
Charcuterie
Charcuterie boards and grazing tables have become works of art, and like the best festive food, double as decoration.
Festooned with fruits and flowers, Beyond the Board's creations made with local ingredients can be had from date-night sizes to epic proportions. Or there are the colorful and richly textured spreads of Cheese Jawn. Olive to Be Social specializes in safely separate charcuterie cups, just as pretty and perfect for post-pandemic prudence. Offering not just boards and banquet tables resplendent with nibbles, Gather & Graze hosts charcuterie workshops—an interactive and tasty party idea in itself!
Posh Picnics
The once humble picnic is not to be overlooked for our most meaningful celebrations, not when elaborate luxury spreads can be so easily staged by these skillful services.
Penn Picnics creates sumptuous settings with packages for an intimate couple up to a 12-person gathering, and the option to pick up your selection of supplies to set the stage yourself. Celebrate amid vibrant, glamorous picnic scapes with Shionna Luxxure Picnic, be it out in the elements or at the Creative Selfie Studio where a wealth of beautiful backdrops are at your disposal.
In chillier weather, Picturesque Luxury Picnics provides a bubble tent and optional space heater to keep your revelry snug. They also offer add-ons for all your needs, from live string music to yard games and painting supplies.
How about a picnic but add a spa experience? Or stage it on the grounds of a historic mansion? Pic.A.Nic reaches for the stars with impressive enhancements.
Private Rooms
With space and significance, private rooms take your event to splendid settings with food and drink on tap.
Keep it casual by reserving a fire pit at Quakertown's Trolley Barn Public Market where the distillery, brewery, creamery and multiple restaurants provide for every craving. Borrow the beautiful barrels and stone facades of Folino Estate and Winery for groups small and large, or the glamour and grandeur of an erstwhile Gilded Age bank at Vault 634 in Allentown.
Blue Grillhouse in Bethlehem offers a cozy dining room for two as well as a covered patio for good weather gatherings, or there's the gorgeous timber frame of Grille 3501's Loft Mezzanine for mid-size groups.
Hold your shower, anniversary, etc., at small-scale Bar Bix in Easton's Townley House and you have the benefit of a boutique hotel for visiting guests, while the awe-inspiring blast furnaces of Bethlehem Steel could be the backdrop for your occasion at the ArtsQuest Center's multiple venues.
Intimate Dining
It's all about the food, if we're being honest, and some of the best chefs of the Valley are happy to show off in exclusive seatings. Roll the dice on a mysterious and marvelous five-course, prix fixe fine dining experience at La Locanda del Cavallo, a hidden gem squirreled away in Easton.
Notch Modern Kitchen & Bar in Allentown, famous for its Asian fusion menu and spectacular cocktails, pairs food and drink impeccably in its six-course Chef's Table with a full view of the kitchen.
The Italian market Giacomo's is easy to miss along busy 309 through Quakertown, but this trove of Mediterranean treats also offers a private dining experience in the form of Giacomo's Table, laden with lots of food and friendly atmosphere.
Things to Do
Whatever your interests, you can bring friends and family along for the ride, try something new or enjoy a hobby together with themed experiences offered by experts in their field. Mold pottery on a wheel at The Art Establishment's Sip & Spin, cobble together your own living terrarium with Sterner's Stems' Plant & Sip or decorate delicious cakes together at a Cake As Canvas class.
Golfing simulators abound, making it effortless to eat, drink and swing in the same place. Gather in a private room at Sweet Spot Bar & Grill or host your private party at the X-Golf Lehigh Valley in Easton.
Get a group together to design your own commemorative nail color at Taylor Made Polish or book a tea party at Tshikovi Tea House, run by a certified herbalist and tea master. Or if you're craving endorphins, call in Easton Cycle's fleet of stationary bikes for a killer group workout.
The variety of activity options is so wide, you can even celebrate by learning to shuck oysters together with a class from Silvershell Counter + Kitchen.
Dazzling Decoration
Set the scene with the gorgeous décor that turns a simple venue into an unforgettable experience.
The Valley is abundant with florists to add the inimitable touch of fresh flowers, like the very pretty, slightly wild work of Ornithea House of Flowers. For a truly unique and opulent option, rent Sonny Floret's Flower Truck. The vintage mint-green Volkswagen truck is cute enough on its own, but looks amazing loaded with take-home bouquets or heaps of blooms for guests to make their own arrangements.
Leave it all in the hands of experts: Couples turn to Lavish Haus Design & Event Co.'s designers for on-trend, incandescent weddings, but the team is down to bring their magic to any type of event.
In clusters and cascades, the field of advanced balloon décor adds just plain bubbly fun. From Blueprint Creations' show-stopping displays, décor rental and event styling services to Baby Got Balloons' billowing arches in every color, this visual fanfare is at your fingertips.
Rentals to Relish
None of us can be expected to keep a variety of props and tableware in our attics, which is why rental companies exist to help create whatever theme we might desire.
Pitch A Tent Rentals keeps your gathering hospitably safe from the elements with peak tents, pole tents and full-on walled shelters with heating elements inside. A photo booth service like Rockin' Ramaley's makes selfies a group activity with fun props and quality keepsakes.
From vintage china to the cleanest, most modern dinnerware, Lovely Luxe Rentals sets your table for any occasion with the pretty place settings and glassware that transform an event. If your party needs to be set off with vintage items like old suitcases, mismatched wooden chairs or a Jacobean buffet, look no further than Fox & Finch, based in Bethlehem.
Kids' Festivities
Give youngsters and their friends a day to remember literally bouncing off the walls at a trampoline park like Sky Zone or the bigger Freefall with a recently added ropes course. For those exhilarated by adornment, makeover parties at Sweet & Sassy offer spa, princess or pop star themes.
Little itty bitty ones will love Puppet Parties at the Book & Puppet store in Easton, retelling fairy tales and fractured fables for laughs, with live music, while older kids (and adults!) will be amped to race go karts at Lehigh Valley Grand Prix or hurtle through obstacles at a Lehigh Valley Parkour Academy birthday party.
Pick a Performer
Live entertainment is one way to make a party unforgettable, especially for youngsters.
The roster of characters from A Storybook Party includes not just favorite Disney princesses but also princes, superheroes, witches and wizards, fairies and more. Cosplay chameleon Joanna Bertalan graces events as The Singing Princess, bringing activities and song from her career at Walt Disney World.
It's not just kids wowed by the atmosphere entertainers bring to an evening. Hire a bellydancer like Serayah, based in the Allentown area, for an exotic, elegant mood with flowing veils, glowing candle trays, sequins and shimmies, or make space for Stevie Sol Circus's portable aerial rig and your guests will make merry within sight of a graceful and glittering acrobat. How's that for a special occasion?
Pet Party
It's not even weird anymore to have a party for your four-legged friends, or include fur family in your own event.
Whether you're throwing a puppy picnic at the dog park or a more intimate gathering, consider catering with The Dining Dog in Allentown. Peanut butter and banana or meat-based cakes decorated beautifully and inscribed in icing just like people cakes are unbelievably cute, and from dog-friendly mini-pies, soups and entrées to the swirled frosting on mouthwatering dog cookies, you'll be tempted to partake.
To mark the occasion, professional dog whisperers like Unleashed Pet Photography can make your beloved pet more than a blur in the corner of a photo, and produce portraits worthy of display at Fido's birthday party.
Published as "The Ultimate Guide to Entertaining in the Lehigh Valley" in the December 2022 edition of Lehigh Valley Style magazine.
