Dîner en Blanc Honolulu 2017

*NOTE: All photos taken with an IPhone 5s.

You’re invited to Hawaii’s largest, most exclusive and secret dining experience! Here’s the catch, you must dress entirely in white, lug around your own your own chairs, tables and silverware. After enjoying a night of dancing under the stars, diners pack up and disappear before midnight, leaving the site spotless as if the party never happened. Dîner en Blanc is an annual, flash-gathering that happens all over the world.

ROOTS IN PARIS

The story goes that Frenchman François Pasquier wanted to have an elegant “picnic” with his friends in a public park. He asked his friends to bring a friend and that they dress in white in order to distinguish each other from the crowd. Now, the elegant affair has gone global and more than 1,600 people were expected to attend this year’s rain-or-shine event in Honolulu.

PREPPING FOR OUR FIRST DEB

Diners are responsible for bringing their own things, including glass plates, wine glasses and water. A gourmet meal for two, champagne and wine are available to purchase through an online pre-sale and is picked up at the location. However, you can also choose to pack your own meal and drinks (no hard liquor or beer allowed) as nothing is sold at the event.

Josh and I chose to purchase the pre-sale appetizer and brought our own shrimp scampi, dessert, wine and water. That was the easy part. I already had white shoes and a white dress. Finding Josh’s outfit and a table was the hardest part!

HUNTING FOR A SQUARE TABLE & WHITE TROUSERS

We procrastinated and waited till the week before to contact a rental company so it wasn’t that much of surprise to discover that many places were all out of square tables between the dimensions of 28 inches and 32 inches. Pacific Party Rental was very easy to work with and I was able to correspond with them entirely through email. I rented two chairs and two linen napkins from them for $7.54.

It took us trips to four different stores before we finally found a square table with collapsible legs. We also found a white table-cloth on sale for $3.99.

By luck, Josh found white pants that were about a size too big for him but at that point, anything was better than nothing.

Four days before the event, Josh finally found white shoes but it was accented with red trim on the upper heel area. Literally hours before the dinner party, we bought liquid white-out and painted over it.

 

We brought our own plates, glasses and silverware from home. We also borrowed my sister’s trusty red beach wagon to haul all our stuff.

ARRIVING AT THE PICK-UP LOCATION

The dinner location remains secret up until the very last minute so instead we met at our pick-up location, Bishop Museum. I checked in with my group leader, Lehuanui, who gave me my “line-up” number.

Luckily, our friend from high school and college, Edmar “Izzy” Castillo, and his girlfriend were in our group and would be seated next to us. Josh and I ended up being the last people to board our bus and through some tetris-style packing of our stuff into the storage area beneath the bus, we were on our way.

 

 

 

 

THIS YEAR’S SECRET LOCATION: KA’A’AWA VALLEY

I was sweaty, hangry and coming off of a cold after the 30-minute bus ride but as soon as we arrived at Kualoa Ranch, the rays of the setting sun against the Koolau range simply took my breath away. Everyone got off their buses, retrieved their items and in an orderly fashion, trekked across Ka’a’awa Valley to their designated areas. I was one of the unfortunate souls who wore stiletto heels and sunk in the grass with each step.

We set up our table in about 15 minutes. We went simple with our centerpiece and bought a flower bouquet from the grocery store and used an old glass bottle we had lying around as a vase. However, there were some people who had elaborate table set-ups.

OUR NIGHT

Overall, #DEBHNL was a great date-night experience! We met some new friends who were also there for the first time. One con of the night was waiting in line for 30 minutes to use the bathroom. In fact, a woman cut in front of us in the bathroom line but she needed to get to the sink immediately to wipe up her bloody face. She may have been a victim of someone who swung an elbow too hard on the dance floor.

 

Other than that, the entertainment was great and kept hundreds of people on the dance floor for most of the night. The stage was lit with performers including DJ SuperCW, local artist Tenelle, DJ Delve and more.

HOW CAN I ATTEND?

The event is by invite-only. You’ll need to be invited by someone who is already a member of the annual dinner. You can go to the Honolulu Dîner en Blanc website and submit your email address onto the waiting list. I added my name to the waiting list 2 years ago and nearly forgot about it until the invitation arrived in my inbox about a month ago. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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