Shelby's Social Diary
Naming names: The Social Book honors Houston Treasures in elaborate Astor-themedbash
Celebrating 10 years of naming names — in the best of ways — The Social Book continued its tradition of naming H-Town leaders to spotlight as Houston Treasures in the annual calendar with a John Jacob Astor-themed dinner at the St. Regis Hotel. (Astor opened the original St. Regis in New York in 1904.)
Social Book principals Scott Evans, Jeff Henry and Sami Shbeeb welcomed the cocktail-attired throng of 330 guests that included past Treasures such as Paul Somerville, Linda McReynolds, Pat Breen, Linda Lorelle and Kimberly DeLape. Houston Treasures founder Warner Roberts served as emcee for the seated dinner evening hosted by St. Regis Houston GM Ron Lamers.
They partied in decorative splendor with various vendors donating their talents in order to guarantee a beautiful experience — among them Vik Chadha's The Perfect Touch and Nino Shbeeb's Flowers by Nino. Richard Brown and his musicians pumped the holiday tunes and Tiffany & Co.'s Michael McClure delivered party favors of Tiffany Christmas ornaments. J&D Entertainment provided the playful characters that entertained guests during the cocktail hour.
The ballroom was filled with a who's who of Houstonians including past honorees who had joined in to introduce 2013 honorees. We counted among them Lynn Wyatt, Dr. Kelli Cohen-Fein, Linda Lorelle, Deborah Duncan, Kimberly DeLape and Fred Zeidman.
Taking bows as 2013 poster pals for community leadership were Rose Carrabba, Molly and Jim Crownover, Bob Devlin, Danielle Ellis, Richard Flowers, Ellie Francisco, Kathryn and Jim Ketelsen, Bill King, Nancy Levicki, Lucinda and Javier Loya, Sharon Michael Owens, Rosemary Schatzman and Penny and Paul Loyd.