In her four years of helping plan proms at Aurora’s Grandview High School, Dot Bose is used to unusual requests, but none tops this: A student last year suggested that the prom court ride horseback.
Expenditures already were nearing $30,000 for the opulent “Arabian Nights” event at Invesco Field at Mile High, so the horseback idea was dismissed, yet prompting another.
What about building platforms – Egyptian-princess style – to carry the court?
“That idea didn’t fly, either,” said Bose, a Grandview special education teacher who volunteers to help students plan the granddaddy of all high school parties.
“Sometimes you have to bring ideas in a little.”
But only a little.
It’s prom season across Colorado, and for a generation raised on MTV and high-dollar commercialism, the bigger, bolder and blingier, the better.
Gone are the days of crepe-paper-and-candle centerpieces, picking up your conservatively dressed date with Dad’s Buick and splurging on a $40 meal over two glasses of Coke.
Prom expenditures totaled $4.1 billion nationally last year, according to Conde Nast Bridal Group, publishers of Your Prom, with the event driven by ever-increasing expectations that a prom should be the bash that can never be replicated.
“Eaglecrest and Cherry Creek (high schools) have their proms the same night, so this is a competition,” said Emily Renaud, 16, who was on the committee that planned Grandview’s $30,000 “Frozen in Time” May 20 prom at The Wildlife Experience in Parker. “You have to be better because everyone’s going to be talking about it.
“This is a big deal.”
This year in the state, there are chocolate fountains, glass- and Styrofoam-encased “ice caves,” Tiffany lamps and shimmery fabrics picked out by professional party planners whose job it is to make an unforgettable night even more so. Prom budgets, too, are becoming more excessive, costing tens of thousands of dollars.
“When I was in school, it was more about who was going with whom, and that mentality has totally changed,” said Genia Larson, 29, an independent contractor who helped plan five proms this weekend. “Now, it’s about decor. Is the DJ spinning or is he just playing CDs? What kind of atmosphere do you have?”
Casino-night themes must have people-sized playing cards; closed-circuit television should pipe party action into other rooms; and DJs should have prominent positions above the dance floor.
“They want models and mimes and everything,” Larson said. “Prom has to be like a club or a rave. They’re getting ideas from television, from movies.”
And all of that bothers Karal Ann Marling, a professor at the University of Minnesota who studies America’s debutantes.
Teenagers, she said, have lost sight of the understated magic that prom should bring.
“The biggest change is that prom has moved from an adult-sponsored event to a kid-planned one where things can get out of control,” Marling said. “Prom turned into something like a bunch of pigs wallowing in a trough.”
One example of that excessiveness, she said, came this year in New York, where two Long Island high schools temporarily canceled prom after years of liquor-loaded limos and weekend house rentals in the Hamptons. As a compromise, administrators eliminated high-priced dinners, tuxedos and ball gowns in favor of “business class” jackets and dresses.
But the idea that all proms could float to the level of excess that permeated the Long Island schools is ridiculous, said Sally Hobler, an Arvada West High School teacher who advised her school’s prom committee.
While this year’s event at Red Rocks could exceed $10,000, Hobler said, her students worked within their budget and wanted to be inclusive.
Still, she said, prom had to be “worth the price” of the $36 per ticket that students paid for the event this weekend. To wit, nearly 300 seniors at Saturday’s prom were to be given a Colorado Rockies ticket.
“The kids want this to be memorable,” Hobler said. “I think they achieved that.”
The pressure, though, to create the “it” party can become all-consuming.
Ground rules are set from the first prom meetings. The past prom must be topped, and other schools’ proms should never be duplicated, lest your school be judged.
Larson, the planner, said Arvada West students laughed when they learned that a rival booked the Seawell Ballroom, the place for Arvada West’s prom last year.
“They were sure that their prom last year would be so much better,” said Larson, who helped Arvada West coordinate the event. “They didn’t want to be topped.”
But before the big night, there is the angst over whom to ask and how. Some students say the elaborate nature of prom extends to the question itself.
Sean Hope, 18, of Littleton High School, led his date on a scavenger hunt. When she finally found him, he popped the question.
“I was kind of nervous,” said Sean, who has known his date for eight years. “She’s a little quieter. I just sort of noticed her. We started talking.”
Indeed, there still are some souls who say they know the true meaning of prom; the hand-holding, the dancing, that first kiss.
Students at Littleton High say their prom will be a more modest affair.
The dance – heavy on the dance-hall rap, think Sean Paul, with a little bit of country – was scheduled this weekend at Denver’s Adam’s Mark hotel. Prizes were to be given out every half-hour, treats including CDs, gift cards and free rounds of golf.
“For me, it’s that one special night where you get to get all dressed up,” said Charlene Montoya, a 16-year-old junior from Littleton High School. “Your boyfriend will actually take you someplace nice.”
For Montoya, there was eyebrow waxing, a haircut, a manicure, a pedicure, shoes and accessories. The best part, her mother said, is that they got to do it together.
And Bose, the Grandview teacher, said her students are enjoying the time put into prom, expected to draw 1,000 students.
“They’re amazing kids,” she said. “They have lots of good ideas.”
Unless, of course, it’s a horse.
Denver Post librarian Barry Osborne contributed to this report.
Staff writer Robert Sanchez can be reached at 303-820-1282 or at rsanchez@denverpost.com.
