Diner en Blanc - with an extra serving of Hail

Gone are the days of elegant sophistication and refined dinners where smartly dressed guests participated in inane conversation. 

Woman yawned politely behind their hand and men downed their scotch - each waiting for the time when it would be polite to leave.

Forward to 2014. 

Setting Up

Diner en Blanc - a concept that began 25 years ago in Paris. 
Read more about it here

People dressed head to toe in their white finery. Shoes so new, they blind you.
Armed with picnic baskets and flowers, the excited attendees alight the bus and walk to their secret destination - the Library Lawns on the WITS University Campus.

Elegance amongst the majestic buildings

The view that awaited us was beautiful. Imagine a flurry of activity in a sea of white. It was a beautiful sight - if I hadn't been so darn excited I would have focused my camera and actually taken a photo that was clear enough to show you!

My sunglasses are definitely not a part of the theme!

10 minutes were allowed for us to set up a table with as much decor (all in white) as we were able to carry. (I don't think the Team Leader was actually clock watching - as she was quite busy running around herding her team in)

A couple next to us had brought a little tree, complete with bubbles to insert some baby's breath and flameless votives - the effect was gorgeous.

Left: Our decor | Middle: Neighbour

The finished result

Feathers & Pearls are an easy way to add luxury to table decor without spending a lot of money. To add some ambiance, Candles or Fairy Lights are always a winner.
We opted to forego candles as the wind is bound to cause some mischief with the candles.

Feathers & Pearls

We fell in love with a little white orchid (Orchids are my favourite flower) and thought it would be a lovely reminder of the event.

How cute is my T behind all the feathers & flowers?

The balloons tied to our chairs were bobbing up and down and ruining my photos, so I pretended to be a model:

"Staring at Nothing"pose

The obligatory "DuckFace"

The "Oh look, casually drinking wine"pose

We had just gotten through our starter when a light drizzle began to fall.
This was expected - with 1 hand covering our wine (diluted wine is a big no-no) we donned our clear/white ponchos.
The mood was festive and the rain added to that extra bit of excited atmosphere that enveloped us.

Romance in the rain

Without any warning, there was a clap of thunder & hail began to pelt down. Imagine a scene in a disaster movie - this is pretty much the scene that unfolded before us.
I grabbed the precious orchid to hide it under the table, and reached for the camera, handbag and our glass of wine and we fled.
Hail stones were beating don on our heads and my exposed legs as we ran through puddles and fallen leaves.
We unsuccessfully tried to huddle up in an alcove, but there were too many people. We heard someone exclaim"The Great Hall"!"and we dashed after them into the warm protection of a building.

Settling down we realised that we had successfully salvaged our wine - running full speed I had not messed a drop - and T had only a teeny little splash on the leg of his pants.

Grinning at our foresight, we happily drank our wine as we watched the drenched people around us trying to get dry.
Apart from the water dripping from our hair, the top half of our bodies were relatively dry.

Drowned Rats - but at least we have wine

With some time to kill while the storm raged outside, we explored the eery corridors of the university.

Isn't it funny how all universities and old hospitals have that creepy echo in the corridors?

Despite the rain & being stranded by our bus or the discovery that our basket had been ransacked by looters, we had still laughed hard and had so much fun - this will definitely go down in the memory banks as a wonderful and special memory for the 2 of us.

Lasting memories

If this event happens in your part of the world, I suggest you start saving for it now.

It is a bit on the expensive side, but if you watch the videos of what to expect (lighting sparklers and dancing) & what we experienced in an hour - I think it will be well worth it.

And in case you are wondering - the orchid survived it all & now has a place of pride in my loft.