As prom season approaches, upperclassmen scramble to figure out last-minute planning for their big night. There are so many different problems that a student has to face when planning and a lot of times, the stress of getting ready can overshadow the actual fun of the dance.
Students start shopping for their prom dress as early as December, some even in November. When thinking about the perfect dress, it’s easy to overthink. Knowing what color and style you want is one thing, but you also have to know when the dress will ship and arrive. Some companies can take months to ship one dress, so often people will find that the dress they have completely fallen in love with is not going to arrive on time, and then they are left to scramble to find a dress at the last minute, often with no time left to get it hemmed or altered. Not knowing when the dress will arrive leaves a small amount of time to pick shoes to wear when getting the dress hemmed, and whether it will need them or not.
In prom culture, it is normal for friends to get together in the morning and eat breakfast together while making flower bouquets. The morning before prom is spent getting ready for the dance and taking pictures, which can cause a lot of stress when there are a large number of people all needing to get ready at once. Some groups will choose to get together and spend the whole morning preparing as a group, and others will split up and do it separately. The stress of figuring out what time everyone needs to be ready by to make sure the dinner reservation is made can add stress to everyone and make it complicated to remember to enjoy the morning.
Additionally, picking the perfect dinner spot can be hard when working with a big group; it can be hard to find a perfect compromise between who wants what and who is bringing whom. Once everyone has settled on a restaurant, it is then that the next challenge is faced, the availability of the restaurant. Most of the time, different schools will have their Prom on the same night, which leaves restaurant availability limited. Working with limited locations and a set number of people can make it hard to find somewhere that works for the whole group, making it important for students to make their reservations sooner rather than later.
Finally and arguably one of the most complicated parts of prom is the transportation. Park is different from other schools, where we do not have party buses; we drive together in cars to the dance, to dinner, to pictures, etc. Finding parking can be complicated, paying for parking and fitting everyone into a certain number of cars can be challenging when it comes to larger groups. When one friend has a date and the others do not, when there are more people than seats available in cars, cars get towed, ticketed and booted.
I know personally I have had a hard time making sure all the times line up perfectly. Everyone can have different expectations for their prom nights and they can often make it hard to come together as a group. I know that there are some who want to make hair appointments on their day off, or others who want to get ready all at the same time and that can also lead to clashes. I’ve learned from my prom experiences that there are a lot of compromises that need to come together for prom to be fun for everyone.
For seniors, it is especially important to make the most of prom because we don’t have another chance. This is the last year that the whole grade will be together and the memories tied to school events are important, prom being one of the last to check off. The careful and meticulous planning that goes into prom planning can easily make it seem like more of a burden, but it’s important to remember the baggage of the pre-prom stress isn’t nearly as important as getting to spend some of the last big moments with your friends, having fun and making memories you can look back on.
