Venues in Houston

In February I've been focusing on visiting venues in Houston and networking with different local groups. We are fortunate to have many wonderful party venues in this city. I would love to plan events at many of them. It's been a pleasure to meet wonderful people who manage the venues and make it their life's work to assist people in making their dream of a fantastic event come true. The picture I'm featuring in this post is the outside of Las Velas. This venue is located in southwest Houston near Chimney Rock and Richmond. The director is Elmira Frias who has many years'

experience in event planning. I found her to be very personable and truly interested in pleasing clients. I hope I am privileged to collaborate with her on an event. If you wish to read more about Las Velas, log on to their website at www.lasvelashouston.com. There are beautiful pictures posted as well.

Valentine's Day

If you received the Meetings and Milestones February e-newsletter, you may have watched the video where I talk about my ideal Valentine's Day.  Well, most of what I talked about really happened.  Yesterday morning I attended a networking event in Fort Bend County.  Just after I got home, my husband called and asked if I'd like to go for a walk when he returned from his errands.  In the early afternoon, we walked to Hermann Park which is only 1/2 mile down the road. The weather was beautiful and we got to see what the Hermann Park Conservancy has been up to recently.  They are almost totally redoing the park as part of a $30 million project.  It will be beautiful!  We proceeded southward and stopped at the Memorial Hermann office building for coffee at Starbucks.

Last night we watched a cute "Valentine-y" movie on TV.  A British comedy called "Confetti," it was a "mocumentary" about a bride's magazine in England that was having a contest for the most creative and unusual wedding.  Three couples were finalists: one couple were "naturalists" and wanted to get married in the nude.  The second couple were crazy about tennis and wanted a tennis-themed wedding.  The third couple loved old movie musicals and wanted something with that theme. Anyway, each couple worked with the same two male wedding planners (they came together as a package deal!).  The wedding planners developed the ideas and even participated in each wedding.  All three weddings were presented (one after the other) in front of the same audience on the same night and then the panel of judges picked the winning couple who received a new house in England worth 1/2 million pounds.  Pretty good deal now days! Of course, we knew the couple with the movie theme would win because theirs was the most elaborate production.  It was such a cute movie!

So I had a very nice Valentine's Day with the hubby.  I took the picture above of the beautiful roses and card he gave me along with the candy I gave him.  Oh yes, Charlie made a special guest appearance to scope out the scene.  It's not necessary to spend lots of money of Valentine's Day; being with people you love is the main thing though I won't pass up any presents that come my way!  Many of the stores will be having sales on Valentine's stuff for the next few days so it's a good time to stock up. Don't think I'd save candy for a year but in our house, there's no way it would last that long anyway!

Resale Shops, My New BFFs!

A few weeks ago I posted about a group of ladies with whom I went to high school and the get-together we had on January 25th.  For that gathering I asked that everyone bring a dozen cookies.  As I was preparing for that afternoon, I thought about how I could make the set-up special.  Early that week I decided to look at resale shops for serving platters.  I live in the Museum District of Houston and there are several shops within a few mile radius.  The shops I explored included The Blue Bird Circle Resale Shop on West Alabama, The Guild Shop on Dunlavy, Charity Guild of Catholic Women Resale Shop on Lovett and The Goodwill Shop on Westheimer.  There are more but I ran out of time.  I must say I had the best time looking through everything!  It's probably best if you have a game plan to stay focused.  I decided I would look for crystal serving platters. The picture above is the island in our kitchen fixed up for the gathering.  I found a candle holder and several platters.  Each piece was $7.50 or less.  The antique tablecloth was my grandmother's but I remember using it in the early 80s when I lived in St. Louis so I've had it many years. My husband kindly ironed it (what a guy!). When you're planning a party at your home or another venue, it's really cool to personalize it with items you already own or ones you can purchase inexpensively.