To Get a Yes for Prom Date, Say No to Simply Asking
Prom season was fast approaching, and Rose Tamayo had been hinting to her friend Kevin Shah that simply asking her to the event wasn't going to be enough to get a yes. She wanted something grander.
But even she was surprised by what happened next.
Kevin, with the aid of three buddies, used a student assembly at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton to pop the question.
In front of 300 students, they lip-synced to a recorded song, paused for a moment on stage, then unveiled T-shirts, each emblazoned with a letter of the word R-O-S-E. Next they turned around to show off the letters of P-R-O-M on the seats of their pants. And as the audience clapped and cheered, Kevin leaned down and handed Rose a bouquet.
Rose never did get around to saying yes -- at least in public. "I didn't really say much," she said. "Everybody already knew. So I just stood up and gave him a hug."
Inviting a date to the prom has never been easy. The sweaty palms, the stomach knotted by fear and anxiety. The nervous questions, muttered sotto voce, followed by equally breathless answers.
But that was then. Like many things prom-related, inviting a date to a prom has emerged as a serious game of one-upmanship in which only the creative survive. Just as mom's station wagon gave way to the limousine and, in turn, the stretch SUV -- and just as homemade frocks have been replaced by gowns fit for a Hollywood starlet on a red carpet -- prom invitations have gone deluxe.
In manners previously reserved for marriage proposals, teens place notes in fortune cookies, make videos, burn CDs -- all to lure that special someone to dress up and dance. They plan their strategy for months, consulting friends for advice and support, enlisting aid from their teachers and classmates.
Prom-related websites and magazines add to the hype, celebrating the creative invite and offering suggestions to those lacking imagination. And teens, mostly boys, say they feel increasing pressure to measure up. This year, they say, it's even worse.
A student at Esperanza High School in Anaheim designed an elaborate scavenger hunt, leaving clues at each of his date's classes throughout the school day, each one giving more clues to his identity.
A Temple City boy froze his invitation inside a 2-pound block of ice.
It's all a sign of the times, said Richard Calo, author of "The First Book of Prom" and creator of the website ThePromSite.com.
