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Inside Our Houston Vendor Showcase
A day here · Stafford, Houston We filled the Mansion with caterers and cake makers so you could taste before you book A vendor showcase is the only day of the year when the room is full of the people you would normally have to chase one at a time — and you can eat their food, see their work and take their card in a single afternoon. The Mansion with stands down both sides and the floor open in the middle — the clearest picture we have of what the room looks like busy. Why we do this rather than hand you a list Plenty of Houston venues keep an approved supplier list. It is easy for the venue and quietly expensive for you: a shorter list, less competition on price, and sometimes a commission baked into the quote you are handed. We do not work that way. You are not tied to an approved supplier list, and we take no markup on your food bill — your caterer, baker, decorator, DJ and photographer can all be your own choice, and you pay them directly. That does not mean you are on your own. Ask and we will happily recommend the people who work here most often, and if you would rather not manage any of it we run an all-inclusive package that covers catering, decoration, cake, drinks and bar service end to end. The point is that it is your call, not a condition of the room. The showcase exists for the people in the middle — the ones who want to choose, but would like to do a season’s worth of research in one afternoon. So once a year we open the building and invite the suppliers we see here most. Nobody at the showcase is on a list. They are just good. Most of the day sounded like this. What was actually in the room Caterers with chafing dishes and plated samples — jollof and stews alongside contemporary canapés. A small-chops stand. A chocolatier with boxed truffles. A coffee bar pulling drinks to order. A cart of parfaits and salads. A licensed mixologist working the marble bar in the Dome. A five-tier wedding cake on a black cocktail table. Balloon decorators with portfolio boards. Event stylists with full drape-and-floral builds. A live caricature artist. A contortionist. You could taste eight caterers before lunch. That is the whole point. One caterer’s sampling stand. Three others were doing the same thing twenty feet away. Seeing the room dressed by six different people at once This is the part guests said they had not expected. Every venue photograph you have ever seen shows a room styled once, by one team, for one look. On showcase day the same hall carried a sage-and-lilac balloon arch, a mirror-top banquet run with candelabra, a draped lounge vignette, a floral staircase runner and a proposal backdrop — all at the same time. If you have been trying to picture whether your colours will work here, that is the answer: the room is white panelled walls, polished concrete and crystal chandeliers. It is a neutral. It takes whatever you bring. One stylist’s banquet run: mirror top, candelabra, lilac and yellow florals. And another team’s take, in the same hall, on the same afternoon. The staircase with a floral runner built up the side of it. How to use a showcase properly Bring your date and your number Every quote you are given is guesswork without them. “A Saturday in March, about 150” gets you a real price on the day instead of an email thread three weeks later. Photograph the food, not the stand By Tuesday every stand looks the same in your camera roll. A photo of the plate with the vendor’s card next to it is the note that still makes sense a month later. Taste, then shortlist to three Eight caterers is research. Three caterers is a decision. Book tastings with the three before you leave the building. Come to the next one We run the showcase as an open house, so it is also the easiest way to see the building without booking a private tour: the Mansion downstairs, the Dome upstairs, the parking, the getting-ready rooms, all of it, with the lights on and people in it. If you would rather not wait, a private tour takes about twenty minutes and you can walk both rooms on any weekday. Or start with the virtual tour and the amenities and parking pages. Book a tour(281) 801-5211See every event type The vendor showcase was held at The Hendrix, 1250 Texas Parkway, Stafford, TX 77477. Photographs from the day. Showcase and tour questions Does The Hendrix have an approved supplier list? No, and you are not tied to one. Your caterer, baker, decorator, DJ and photographer can all be your own choice, you pay them directly, and there is no markup on your food bill. We are still glad to recommend suppliers who know the building, or to run the whole event on an all-inclusive package covering catering, decoration, cake, drinks and bar service. When is the next vendor showcase? We run it as an annual open house. Call (281) 801-5211 or email us and we will tell you the next date, or book a private weekday tour instead — it takes about twenty minutes and covers both rooms. Can I see both rooms on one visit? Yes. The Mansion downstairs seats up to 300 from $2,500; the Dome upstairs is about 2,000 sq ft and marketed at 80 guests or fewer, at $1,200 daytime and $1,500 evening. A tour covers both. Do I have to pay to attend the showcase? No. It is a free open house. Bring your date and your rough guest number so the vendors can quote you properly on the day. What does the room come with? Banquet tables, Chiavari chairs and linens are included. The Mansion carries a $350 cleaning fee and a refundable $500
A Baby Shower in Orbit: Jazmine and Zechariah in The Dome
A day here · Stafford, Houston A baby shower in orbit: Jazmine and Zechariah in The Dome Most baby showers pick a colour. This one picked a place — somewhere above the atmosphere — and then built it, moon and all, in the room upstairs. The backdrop, built against the Dome’s wall: a lit crescent moon, a marquee star, a planet, an astronaut and a balloon garland running the whole width. Why the Dome was the right room Jazmine and Zechariah were expecting somewhere between forty and sixty guests. That is the number that breaks most venues: too many for a restaurant’s back room, not nearly enough to fill a three-hundred-seat hall without the photographs showing it. The Dome upstairs is about 2,000 sq ft and we market it at eighty guests or fewer. At their number the room read as full and generous rather than half-empty, which is the entire difference between a shower that photographs well and one that does not. It also has its own large marble bar, which meant a mocktail station without renting one in, and its own chandeliers, which meant the ceiling was doing work before anybody hung a single balloon. The Dome’s marble bar. It handled the drinks station without a single rental. Thirty seconds of the room Filmed on the day, upstairs, in the room you would book. Your browser does not support this video. The theme, done properly Space is one of the most-attempted baby shower themes and one of the most often thin. It usually amounts to a few star balloons and a rocket on the cake. What made this one work was committing to a single palette and then layering texture inside it. The balloons ran dusty blue, sage, sand and chrome — four tones, no primaries, nothing that fought. Then cotton-wool clouds along the floor, a lit crescent moon you could sit inside, and a marquee star above it for height. The details carried the same discipline: a white baby carriage, blocks spelling BABY, an astronaut cut-out standing guard, and a welcome sign in the same palette rather than a generic one. The carriage and the blocks. Every prop stayed inside the four-tone palette. A welcome sign made for this shower rather than bought for any shower. It is a small cost and it is the first thing every guest photographs. The photograph they will actually keep Every shower produces a hundred pictures of decor and one that ends up framed. Here it was the two of them, in front of the astronaut, before the room filled up. That is worth planning for rather than hoping for. Ask your decorator to have the backdrop finished thirty minutes before guests arrive, and take ten of those minutes for yourselves while the room is still quiet and the balloons have not moved. Thirty minutes before the doors opened. Three things worth copying Pick four tones and stop Dusty blue, sage, sand and chrome. A restricted palette makes an inexpensive garland look designed; an unrestricted one makes an expensive garland look like a party shop. Build something with height The marquee star and the moon are what lift the backdrop off the wall. One tall element does more for the photographs than a dozen table centrepieces. Size the room to the list Sixty guests in a room built for eighty feels warm. The same sixty in a room built for three hundred looks like people did not come. Round tables, Chiavari chairs and linens — all included with the room. What a shower like this costs The Dome is $1,200 daytime, $1,500 evening and $2,000 for a full day, and it is the same price on any day of the week — so a Saturday afternoon shower costs no more than a Tuesday one. Add a $200 cleaning fee and a refundable $350 deposit. A $300 security fee applies only where the event runs into the evening or alcohol is served, which most daytime showers will not need. Banquet tables, Chiavari chairs and linens are included, and you are not tied to an approved supplier list and there is no markup on your food bill, so the decorator, the baker and the caterer are all yours to choose — and if you would rather not choose, we will recommend people who know the room, or take the whole shower on an all-inclusive package. Only one event runs here at a time, which is why their decorator could be in the building building a moon while the room was still empty. More detail on the room and the format in our baby shower venues guide. Check your date(281) 801-5211See the baby shower page Jazmine and Zechariah’s baby shower was held in The Dome at The Hendrix, 1250 Texas Parkway, Stafford, TX 77477. Photographs are stills from the film taken on the day. Baby shower questions Can we decorate a baby shower ourselves at The Hendrix? Yes. You are not tied to an approved supplier list, so your own decorator, baker and caterer are all welcome and there is no markup on your food bill. Only one event runs at a time, so your decorator can be in the building building a backdrop while the room is still empty. If you would rather not arrange it yourself, we can recommend suppliers or run the shower on an all-inclusive package. How many guests does the Dome hold for a baby shower? About 2,000 sq ft, marketed at 80 guests or fewer. Most Houston showers land between 40 and 60 guests, which reads as a full, warm room here rather than a half-empty hall. What does a baby shower in the Dome cost? The Dome is $1,200 daytime, $1,500 evening and $2,000 for a full day, the same price on any day of the week. Add a $200 cleaning fee and a refundable $350 deposit. A $300 security fee applies only where the event runs into the evening or alcohol is served, which most
A Red Carpet for Fifty: An Old Hollywood Birthday
A night here · Stafford, Houston A red carpet for fifty: Ilyasa’s Old Hollywood birthday in the Mansion Most milestone birthdays choose a colour scheme. This one chose an entrance — a red carpet, gold stanchions and a wall of gold sequins — and then let every guest arrive like the picture had already started. The whole installation: a black sequin panel in a gold frame, a neon script sign, a gold drape column and twin balloon towers. Two palettes, not one The thing worth stealing here is that the night ran two colour schemes in two zones, and never mixed them. The arrival and photo zone was black and gold: sequins, chrome balloons, neon, gold marquee letters, and a red carpet between gold stanchions. Loud, glamorous, built for photographs. The dining room was gold and ivory: floor-length ivory linens, gold rim chargers, gold ring-back chairs, and lit candelabra down the middle. There was almost no black on the tables at all. Guests walked from one register into the other. The photographs from the front of the room look like a premiere; the photographs from the tables look like a wedding breakfast. Same night, same room, two completely different sets of pictures. The arrival sequence. Guests were photographed before they had put their coats down. And twenty feet away: ivory, gold and candlelight. No black anywhere on the table. The theme was Old Hollywood, and it was carried all the way through “Lights, camera, action” banners on the bar front. A projector throwing images on the wall. Gold marquee letters. And a cake finished with a Walk-of-Fame star — iced, in Spanish, with a little gold film camera beside the name. That last detail is the one we keep coming back to. A milestone birthday is usually somebody’s whole life in one room: the friends from work, the family who flew in, the people who only speak Spanish at home and the people who only speak English. A cake that says Feliz cumple in a room that says Happy Birthday in neon is not a mismatch. It is an accurate portrait of the guest list. The cake: black glitter drip, a Walk-of-Fame star and a gold film camera. A black balloon hoop framing the whole dessert table — the cake plus rows of cupcakes with gold “50” toppers. The photograph of the night It was not the room, or the cake, or the carpet. It was her, mid-twirl, under a friend’s raised hand, with the neon glowing behind her. Nobody plans that shot. But you can make it possible: keep the photo backdrop lit and near the dance floor rather than tucked in a corner, and it becomes the background of every candid frame for the rest of the night instead of a queue people stand in once. The frame everything else was building towards. The other one nobody planned: her dancing with the youngest guest on the floor, both of them with their arms up, neither of them remotely self-conscious. Fiftieth birthdays are family events whether you design them that way or not. Arms up, on the carpet, in front of the neon. The backdrop on its own. Lit, and positioned where the party actually was. Three things worth copying Give the entrance a job A carpet and two stanchions cost very little and change how guests behave from the first second. People arrive dressed for a photograph because they can see they are about to be in one. Split the room into two registers Loud where the photographs happen, quiet and warm where people eat. You get two distinct sets of pictures out of one booking. Let the cake say something true The most memorable detail was a language, not a colour. Put the thing that is specific to the person on the cake, the sign or the playlist. The Mansion before the doors opened — and the open white staircase that ends up in half the arrival photographs. What a night like this costs Ilyasa’s birthday ran in the Mansion, our downstairs hall, which seats up to 300 and starts at $2,500. Add a $350 cleaning fee and a refundable $500 deposit. A $300 security fee applies where an event runs into the evening or alcohol is served — which a night like this one does, so budget for it here. Banquet tables, Chiavari chairs and linens are included. You are not tied to an approved supplier list and there is no markup on your food bill, so the decorator who built that sequin wall, the baker who made that cake and the DJ were all the client’s own choices — and only one event runs here at a time, so they had the building to themselves to set up. If you would rather we carried more of it, we can recommend suppliers who already know the room, or take the whole night on an all-inclusive package. More on the room and the format in our guide to Houston birthday venues for smaller groups, or see the birthday party page. Check your date(281) 801-5211Take the virtual tour Ilyasa’s 50th was held in the Mansion at The Hendrix, 1250 Texas Parkway, Stafford, TX 77477. Photographs from the night, published with permission. Milestone birthday questions How many guests does the Mansion hold for a birthday party? The Mansion is our downstairs hall and seats up to 300 guests, starting at $2,500. For 80 guests or fewer, the Dome upstairs is the better-sized room at $1,200 daytime and $1,500 evening. Can we bring our own decorator, baker and DJ? Yes. You are not tied to an approved supplier list and there is no markup on your food bill, so every supplier can be your own choice, and only one event runs at a time so your team has the building to themselves to set up. We are also happy to recommend suppliers who know the room, or to run the event on an all-inclusive package. Is there a security
Leslie at 45: A Houston Owambe at The Hendrix
A night here · Stafford, Houston Leslie at forty-five: what a Houston owambe looks like when the room is built for it Dry ice at the doorway, a cherry-blossom arch the width of the stage, jollof down the buffet line and dollar bills in the air. This is the birthday we point to when someone asks what the Mansion can actually take. The stage: a white arch reading “Leslie @45”, a cascade of red, pink and lilac blossom, gold chrome orbs and a curved cream sofa. The room started as a white box That is the part worth saying out loud. The Mansion is white board-and-batten panelling, polished concrete and crystal chandeliers. It has no opinion about your colours. Leslie’s team brought lilac crushed-velvet linens, ghost chiavari chairs, gold scallop chargers, fuchsia satin napkins and towering rose-and-hydrangea centrepieces on ribbed glass stands — and the room simply became that. A month earlier the same hall was black and gold for a fiftieth. A month later it will be sage and ivory for a wedding. A neutral room is not a boring room. It is the one that does not fight your decorator. Before the doors opened. Lilac velvet linens, ghost chairs and the chandeliers doing the top half of the work. Height on the tables, against the panelled wall. This is the frame that tells you which venue you are in. Gold scallop charger, fuchsia satin, a printed menu card and a single lilac rose. The entrance is the whole event in ten seconds At an owambe the grand entrance is not a formality, it is the opening number. Leslie and her husband came out through a lilac drape doorway into a bank of dry ice, and the room was on its feet before either of them reached the floor. If you are planning one: the two things that make this work are a doorway you can hide behind and a clear run of floor to walk down. We can set the drape wherever the aisle is, and the Mansion’s length gives you a genuine walk rather than three steps and a turn. Through the drape, into the fog, straight down the lens. And then the walk itself — down the length of the hall, over the gold floor monogram, with the room on its feet either side. The spray Money spraying is the heart of a Nigerian party — guests showering the celebrant with notes while she dances, family pressing bills to her forehead. It is a blessing made visible, and it is the reason the photographs from an owambe look nothing like the photographs from any other kind of birthday. Practically, it means two things for the venue. You need floor space around the celebrant, not just a dance floor at one end — the circle needs somewhere to form. And you need someone briefed to gather the notes as the night goes on. Our cleaning fee covers the floor afterwards either way. The circle forming, mid-spray. Her husband spraying at the cake, their daughter between them. Their son, holding his share of it. Every Nigerian child at a party like this ends the night with a fistful of notes and a story. Cold sparks either side of the cake. Cold-spark machines have to be ours — they are a fire risk, so we hire out our own units rather than allow one brought in by an outside supplier. Dry ice is no problem. The food, and why it matters that it was not ours Party jollof, stews, and a buffet line worked by five servers in black vests plating from marble-and-gold chafers. It was Leslie’s caterer, not a caterer we sold her. This is the single most important thing we can tell a Nigerian family planning a party in Houston: you are not tied to an approved supplier list, and we take no markup on your food bill. Bring the aunty who has been cooking for your family for twenty years. Bring the caterer whose jollof your guests will actually recognise. We take nothing on top. That is a freedom, not an obligation. If you would rather not audition six caterers, ask us — we are glad to recommend the firms who work here most often and already know the building. And if you would rather hand the whole thing over, we run an all-inclusive package covering catering, decoration, cake, drinks and bar service, so you arrive on the day and do nothing but enjoy it. Bring your own, take our recommendation, or let us run all of it. The one thing you will never get here is a venue quietly adding its own margin to somebody else’s invoice — and that is usually the line item where an owambe budget doubles. Her caterer, her team, her menu. Party jollof. The one dish nobody will forgive you for getting wrong. Three generations in one room The guest list ran from small children to grandparents, and it showed in what people wore. The older guests arrived in full traditional dress — damask buba and gele, brocade boubou, agbada and fila — while most of the younger crowd wore black tie, and the children were dressed as carefully as anybody. Nobody looked out of place, because at an owambe nobody is. Worth planning for: the Mansion is on the ground floor and step-free from the main entrance, which matters when elders are being walked in on somebody’s arm. Seat them where they can see the entrance and the stage without turning, and near enough to the buffet that nobody has to cross the dance floor with a plate. Elders in bronze lace, blue-and-gold brocade and navy agbada, the children in front, the cake between them. One of the best photographs of the night, and nobody staged it. Plan for the children as guests rather than as an afterthought and they will give the photographer half the night’s best frames. These two found the dance floor before most of