Host Your Own Diner En Blanc (All-White Dinner)

How to host your own Diner En Blanc, the famous Dinner in White with these food, table decoration, and dessert ideas. 

WHAT IS DINER EN BLANC? 

The original Diner en Blanc was started in 1998 by a frenchman named François Pasquier. He invited a few friends to meet up at the Parc de Bagatelle. In order to find each other, he instructed them to wear all-white. Since then, Diner en Blancs have become secret-invite-only events all around the world.

Want to attend this chic white picnic, but haven’t received an invitation yet? No worries.

Here’s how you can host your own Diner En Blanc. 

RELATED: WHITE CHRISTMAS DINER EN BLANC 

DINER EN BLANC INVITATIONS

To simplify, we sent free invitations via Paperless Post. They had classy and simple options. The only thing I didn’t like about using their service was that unlike Evite, we weren’t able to see which guests had viewed the invitation. As much fun as creating fancy real invitations would have been, sending an electronic invitation helped us get the word out quickly and simply.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

For a typical Diner en Blanc, guests show up with their own tables, chairs, and food and are bused to a secret outdoor location upon arrival. Talk about fun. 

However, for your party (like we did ours), my sister and I kept it simple for our guests. (We were afraid that people wouldn’t want to come if they had to bring a lot!)  We provided the tables, chairs, table decor, appetizer, and entrees. 

Ask your guests to bring a white dessert for the dessert bar. This will be one less thing you have to worry about! 

WHAT TO WEAR AT DINER EN BLANC

Half the fun of a Diner en Blanc is having as much white as possible. Tell your guests to wear all white to the dinner. White shirts, white pants, white skirts, white dresses, and hats are all good options. 

If you do this activity in the summer, your guests can wear white skirts and dresses. Really though, any simple white attire will do.

Don’t forget to get a group photo with everyone who attends! 

DINER EN BLANC DECORATIONS

Decorating for a diner en blanc is super easy since all you need is white, white, white!

Our white decorations consisted of: 

• White tablecloths
• White square paper plates from Dollar Tree
• $5 carnation bouquets placed in vases
• Ikea fake plants
• Patterned bags like these to place napkin and silverware in
• White balloons

I’m kind of obsessed with white anyway, so it was easy to pull out things I already had. I found some white chairs and benches at a yard sale and then my cute neighbor let us borrow the rest.

DINER EN BLANC TABLE IDEAS

Who knew having all-white could be so classy? With white tables, chairs, plates, and a green plants and white flowers, well you’ve got yourself a beautiful diner en blanc table without a lot of stress!

My sister hand-lettered these name cards for each of the guests. 

It’s a good idea to have assigned seating so that everyone knows their place! 

My dad made some white wood fences for my brother’s wedding years ago, but I knew they’d make a perfect backdrop for our dinner party. And white balloons! Balloons are a cheap an easy way to fill visual space and make a statement. The wind gave them a nice slanted look 🙂

FOOD FOR DINER EN BLANC

As you know, there are always a million things that go into throwing a party, especially right before it starts. To avoid as much last minute chaos as we could, we came up with a menu of items that could either be purchased or prepared in advance to cut down on last minute chaos. Of course, there were things that we were still running around doing at the last minute, but it was so helpful to have most done ahead of time.

Appetizers

• Peach & Basil Flatbread
• Sparkling beverages (we served a variety of these ones from World Market)

Entree

• Teriyaki chicken bowtie pasta (made the morning of)
• Artisan bread & butter (purchased)
• Seasonal fruit: watermelon skewers and grapes and strawberries (prepared the morning of)
• Crudites and dipping sauce in mini condiment cups

White Desserts

• An all white-dessert bar
• We asked each guest to bring something white to share and boy did we have a great variety: naked cheesecake, powdered donuts, salted caramel ice cream, yogurt-covered pretzels, meringues, homemade butter mints, creamsicle cookies, and white Reeses to name just a few.

Click here for free printable menu cards  

WHAT TO DO AT DINER EN BLANC 

The beauty of gathering friends with good food is that you don’t have to plan a lot of entertainment. Most of your time will be spent enjoying appetizers and then sitting down to enjoy a delicious picnic with most-likely lots of chatting. 

End the night with a group photo and dessert from the white dessert buffet. 

Now you can host your own white dinner! Tag @sofestive so we can feature you!

Party Supply Sources

• Plastic goblets – Dollar Tree
• Square paper plates- Dollar Tree
• Pewter Pitcher- Old Town Imports 
• Assorted green table plants and chrome planters- IKEA
• Floral crowns- H&M
• Menu stands- IKEA
• White and gold garland- Target
• White rectangle trays- Harmons

Save this pin for easy reference later!