Show your gratitude and your good taste by sending your guests home with elegant, thoughtful wedding favors. If your favor packaging is fabulous, what’s inside can be as simple as a small handful of sweet delights.

For a selection of simply gorgeous favor boxes—from formal-dress ovals to Thai mulberry-paper cubes—and fantastic favor ideas, get wrapped up in this Houston Wedding Blog post.

It’s a frequent bridal dilemma: chiavaris or covered chairs? Well, Houston bride, you can have your chiavari and drape it, too. The key is to not totally cover your chiavari chairs—you’ve chosen them (and likely paid a premium) for their classic, stately elegance, after all. Instead, opt for sheer chiavari chair back covers, which will give your chairs a dressed-up appearance, and soften their stark lines.

Try a feminine, floor-length style like The Linen House’s organza full chair back with delicate button trim, or, for just a hint of color, top your chairs with fabric "caps," which cover just the top portion of the chiavari chair back.

For their autumn wedding, bride Amber Linn Whitehead and groom Michael William Seidl chose a scenic country club setting and an atmosphere of understated elegance. White table linens, gold runners, jewel-toned floral and a Texas lone-star ice carving—view these and more of the couple’s wedding style selections in this week’s featured Real Wedding

Dan Zimmerman, owner
La Colombe d'Or
"I love meeting happily engaged couples taking the most important step in their lives together," says Dan Zimmerman, owner of Houston’s opulent La Colombe d’Or.

That step often leads to-be-weds to the venue’s Grand Salon, a 300-year-old, hand-carved wooden room that was transported from a famed French countess’s Fontainebleau chateau and now serves as the site of some of Houston’s most exquisite receptions. "Anyone who sets foot in that room cannot help but immediately think of classic beauty and romance," Zimmerman notes.

For the auberge-style La Colombe d’Or’s proud proprietor, the joy of his job comes not just from being able to offer a magnificent historic space, fine food and expert service staff, but also from witnessing La Colombe d’Or’s legacy in the lives of his clients: "The stories we hear from so many about how they were married at La Colombe d’Or, or shared multiple anniversaries with us, are heartwarming--they reassure us that we love what we do and help us continue doing it well."

Every bride wants to look and feel her best on her wedding day. Getting an early start on your fitness regimen can help you achieve toned muscles and a gown-ready figure, and can relax you and boost your energy level—a must for the rigors of planning and participating in your dream wedding.

Closer to your wedding day, skin treatments, hair care and even massages can refresh and rejuvenate you while getting you in tip-top condition for your wedding photos. And, of course, there is your wedding-day makeup, which needs to be perfect, and can, with the expert assistance of one of Houston’s top makeup artists.

To browse Houston’s best health and beauty professionals, and ensure a happy, healthy, picture-perfect you on your wedding day, click here.

Weddings in Houston’s much-anticipated Before You Say..."I do!" annual bridal soiree will take place Sunday, January 24, 2010. If you only attend one wedding show, this is the one, so mark your calendar Houston brides and make it a date. Keep an eye out for your Weddings in Houston weekly Wedding Buzz Newsletter as we announce more details in the weeks ahead.

Weddings in Houston Magazine offers 368 oversize, glossy, photo-filled pages of wedding advice, ideas and inspiration.

Available on newsstands everywhere.
Get your copy Today!

Let us know. We’d love to hear how you like your Weddings in Houston newsletter. E-mail your feedback and suggestions to info@weddingsinhouston.com. We’re eager to hear from you, Houston bride!