 | |
| Wade Howard @ Ocean Driven Media took this picture |
We chose the nearby Sandton Gautrain station as our meeting point. FYI, hundreds of people all dressed in white standing on a busy street corner during rush hour attract oodles of attention!
We didn't know where the bus was taking us until we turned into the parking lot and saw a massive white-ballooned entry gate. Voila ...
 |
| step and repeat at the entrance |
The secret location is revealed!
The South African National Museum of Military History with its iconic memorial arch, like a mini Arc de Triomphe. The Museum's parade grounds were a perfect place to host a few thousand for dinner!
First order of business, set the table, light the candles,
... plate the food and pour the wine.
Next order of business, dine! Bon Appetit and Cheers!
We designed an all-white menu in keeping with the theme!
including the dinner and dessert wines!
And speaking of dessert, the all-white pavlovas consisted of homemade meringues, white chocolate chips,whipped cream, white grapes and macadamia nuts. Yum! And we ate them out of an Orlando Pirates and a Kaizer Chiefs pint glass as a nod to Johannesburg.
We sat at the Milan table. Everyone really got into the spirit!
There are a number of rituals and traditions which take place throughout dinner before the real party starts. First we twirled our white cloth napkins in the air to "occupy the site" and officially start the festivities.
We wrote wishes on slips of paper and attached them to white helium balloons which we released into the heavens.
Not very eco-friendly I am afraid, but it sure did look pretty flying by the arch with its majestic angel statue.
The Anglo-Boer War Memorial arch was aglow.
Then we lit huge sparklers and waved them in the air. Absolutely magical!
White lights were a big part of people's elaborate table decorations.
... and outfits!
some people were very creative with their lighting locations!
There were live performances by a number of musicians throughout dinner, but when the real party started, DJ Ultra-Mel kept everyone on the their feet with a great dance mix.
(Ultra-Mel is Melanie Motto-Ros nemolie123@yahoo.com
072 607 6045)
It was a party under the arch!!!
Already planning my outfit for next year ...
Hi Darlene
ReplyDeleteYou and your partner were such fun under the arch! What a fab blog! Thank you so much for the mention!
Would you mind correcting my details? My email address is nemolie123@yahoo.com
Keep shining!
Mel
Thank you for a great night! I corrected the email (sorry!) See you next year!
DeleteWas such fun! And my pleasure, it was such a great crowd and a great space to work with!
DeleteThank you for correcting the details :)
See you next year indeed xx
Hi Darlene,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the fabulous photos posted on your Blog, It was wonderful meeting you both at such and amazing evening. Cant wait to see u next year and see the next amazing diner menu ....
lots of love
Louise and Cathy
Enjoyed meeting you too! If you want original jpegs of your pictures I can send them to you. Email me at darlene.kasten@gmail.com
Deletexoxo
We attended the 2014 event and I feel slightly … attendees have paid R1000 per couple to be a part of the event and the night came to an abrupt end within 30 minutes of starting with the rain and hail. There was a lack of control and assistance when the night was suspended. After enquiring further, we were told that no refunds will be submitted and the event will not be re-scheduled.
ReplyDelete“Come Rain or shine”, this is what the event organisers promised… well the former definitely did not want to outshone by the thousands of guests who attended this year’s Dinner en Blanc. An evening which promised to be the highlight of the calendar Year has now turned into a potential PR nightmare for the organisers.
Personally we had looked forward to the event for months, and detailed preparations had gone into ensuring that we complied with all the rules of the event organisers – and we were happy to do so, to be part of the experience.
In hind sight, we could only hope that the event organisers could have performed their own due diligence for an event so “spectacular” as they purported.
Now it’s easy to get carried away by subjective opinions of the night, and I’m sure many will, but let’s look at the facts.
• Rain was predicted 7 days ago – event organisers were aware of this – “Come Rain or Shine”, as they said
• Guest were informed to come prepared – which we did…
• During the month September we have a 63% probability of Thunder Storms in JHB (https://weatherspark.com/averages/29019/Johannesburg-Gauteng-South-Africa - Latest 2012) – Fact.
• If you have been around JHB in the last 3 years, you should be well aware that the Hail Storms during this period has gotten progressively worse –Just ask the thousands of Car owners who have had Hail Damage to their cars -Fact.
• Organisers would probably argue - Force majeure - If non-performance of a party is due to an impediment which is beyond the reasonable control of that party and could not have reasonably been foreseen by that party at the time of conclusion of the contract, and neither the impediment nor its consequences could have been avoided or overcome by the non-performing party ("Acts of God", "Force Majeure", "höhere Gewalt"), an the non-performing party did not assume, explicitly or implicitly, the risk of the occurrence of the impediment that party's non-performance is excused. However the Event Organisers were well aware of the Impending Weather hazard –Fact.
My biggest concern would be, what if guests were struck by lightning?
This would have been a tragedy of Epic proportions. “We can all recall the school boys who were struck by lightning just last year while playing Cricket”
Bringing these thoughts back home, we had a guest who was pregnant, what if something happened to her? Thank God nothing did! Would the Event organisers have washed their hands clean of that as well?
What were their Contingency plans? No Plan B? So hope and pray guests don’t get injured, trying to escape a lighting Storm? Should they not have constructed a marque for guests to “weather” out the storm which was predicted?
It was disappointing after last year but still we had a great time. Yes luckily no one was hit by lightening. That would have been tragic. I feel satisfied that I got my money's worth. Looking forward to next year already!
Delete