Black Tie & Tales

+ Blooming babies
It was the girliest of showers, and perfect for mom-to-be Montana Taplinger. Her daughter, to be named Annabelle Marie (to honor the maternal grandmothers of both Montana and husband Irwin), is due July 10. Montana was feted by her girlfriends April 28, at the home of hostess Erin Hart. Themed “Pink and Pearls,” the shower included pink-striped popcorn containers labeled “Ready to Pop,” a candy bar, cake pops as favors and pink everywhere. Each attendee was given a blank birthday card for one year of Annabelle’s life and wrote a happy birthday message for Montana to give her for that year.

“I cannot wait to present her with one card each year and read them alongside her someday,” Taplinger says.

+ Tea and poetry
Sandra Hanan, who recently relocated from Siesta Key to the Ritz-Carlton towers, hosted friends and neighbors April 25. The occasion was a poetry reading donated by writer Lucia Blinn to a Beth Shalom Sisterhood auction and purchased by Hanan. Blinn read several of her poems and presented personally inscribed books to delighted guests, including Mickey Fine, Lee Levins, Zita Desenberg, Linda Roenbluth, Iris Rappaport and former Longboat Key resident Nancy Zivitz, visiting from Washington, D.C.

+ Da capo a fine …
When PNC Wealth Management came into town a few years ago, one of the first organizations to benefit was the Sarasota Opera. The wealth management group’s patronage continues strong: On April 29, PNC hosted its third annual dinner for the opera board at the Hyatt, celebrating the season and anticipating the next. Among the guests: board President Don Worthington and wife Rachel; Vice President David Chaifetz and wife Edie; Les and Carol Brualdi; Erik and Sandra Lindqvist; Murray and Kay Bring; and Larry and Carol English.

+ Cooking for the cook
On Longboat Key, where many a condo bought new are sold 10 years later with the instruction books still in the never-turned-on-oven, Sylvia Pastor is one-of-a-kind. She loves to cook and does it often. Her dear friends, Sheila and Merrill Zinder, came up with the perfect idea for a surprise party to celebrate her 70th birthday: an interactive dinner during which the guests did the cooking of four glorious courses. The April 23 cook-a-thon, at Michael’s Wine Cellar, was indeed a surprise. A highlight was the first outing for the Pastors’ newest grandbaby (No. 13): Scott and Keely Pastor’s 5-week-old daughter, Violet.

Among the guests: Chuck and Betty Ewing, Charles and Connie Cotros, John and Mary Mitchell, Rita Zaccone, David and Angela Stowe, Roz Fleischer and Bert Raimi, Benjamin and Sandy Krauss, Terri Neis and Evans Tillis. Sylvia is perhaps most famous for her cookies, and guests went home with a small bag labeled “Cookies NOT baked by Lady Sylvia.”

+ Tidbits
Sound bite of the week … At last week’s Gems of Philanthropy luncheon, philanthropist Betty Schoenbaum said it best: “People who give have a lower rate of depression, a longer life and a better sex life. So be a giver.” Now you see her, now you don’t … Kathy Cole was barely back in her Colorado home, after several months in Thailand, when she popped into town to attend a private memorial service April 23, and stayed just long enough to go to the Asolo Rep’s “Men Who Cook” event April 28. She plans to stay a bit longer on a June visit … Overheard … Gloria Moss at a recent event saying, “I go to everything,” Yes, and in doing so, she supports a great many worthy organizations.

The calendar calls 
BT is collecting events for the 2013-2014 Black Tie social calendar — if we don’t know about it, we can’t cover it! Email the following information to [email protected]: name of your event; group hosting; group benefiting; time, date and place; ticket price; chairperson; contact name; phone number and email; website and event description.

Black Tie’s “Occasions” column details of some of the most fabulous local weddings and engagement announcements. Whether you attended the most-talked about event of the year or want to announce your own nuptials, send your engagement and wedding announcements to [email protected].