Le Diner En Blanc

Yesterday the much anticipated Diner En Blanc had its inaugural event in the city of Houston.

The event was originally scheduled to be held on May 30th, but due to the storms and floods in our city it was moved to June 14th. A lot of people were upset by the scheduling change, but in all honesty it worked out well for both my guest and I. Many had never heard of the event, and it wasn't really well publicized here. I only knew about it via social media, and was fortunate enough to get on board.

Diner En Blanc is a concept that started in Paris, France over 20 years ago, where a group of friends who hadn't seen each other in a long time decided to meet up at a random place for a picnic. They decided to all wear white so they would be able to recognize each other. That event then continued to grow, and now thousands gather in Paris and other cities around the world for the event.

A lot of preparation and planning went into the event....

Almost too much planning..... From the outfits, to the food, finding the right place settings, the right table and white chairs, to deciding the menu... it was a lot.

A lot of time... A lot of thought. Just a lot...

But once we made it to our meet-up point & to the secret location that the event was being held at, things began to fall into place.....

I was in charge of aesthetics and my date was in charge of getting our food prepared and organized to bring to the location. The inaugural event was held at Discovery Green, which is a popular outdoors destination in our city.

Of course the attire required for the event is all white, and it was truly magical to see the 800 plus guests all decked out in their white attire for a elegant and peaceful evening outside. Aside from a few raindrops, the weather cooperated with us.

I was a little disappointed to see so many people in off-white, ivory and khaki seeing as the rules stated any colors other than white would not be allowed. I sent the dress I originally wanted to wear back to LuLu's because it was Ivory... I found the outfit I actually ended up wearing the week of the event. I wanted to wear suede camel colored heels with my dress, but it had rained so much that I didn't want to risk ruining my shoes so I wore flats the whole night.

The humidity and heat somewhat died down once the sun went down.. We enjoyed getting to know the two couples sitting on either side of us and enjoyed our dinner of penne arrabiata and strawberry spinach salad. For dessert we had strawberry-banana gummy bears, coconut covered apricots and gourmet white chocolates from World Market.

There was a DJ providing the soundtrack for the evening, and a lot of patrons were dancing the night away. We were too hot for that much movement... Despite it being almost 9pm it was still hot, but I digress....

It was so much going on it was hard to capture every moment. I wish I could've taken pictures of some of the elaborate table decorations & crazy white outfits some participants came up with. Aside from a few organizational issues, date drama & humidity/scattered showers, the night turned out being better than I could have anticipated. My only regret is that more of my friends had of known about it and could've been able to attend & that I had of been able to share the memories with a significant other that would have been able to cherish the memory as much as I would have liked to.

Of course there is a major back story regarding the date drama & whom I was accompanied by, but that's neither here nor there. Yet another memory to add to the memory banks.... and a digress seems about right here.

I'm not sure if I will attend Le Diner En Blanc if it returns to Houston, but if I do I am happy I got the chance to see how it is done so I can be better prepared for next year.

Regardless, I am truly happy to have been a part of this event!

If only I could attend the Parisian version!! Definitely a bucket list aspiration!