As time goes by, we get closer to one of the most awaited moments by students during the school year: prom season.
For juniors and seniors, celebrating the end of an important chapter such as high school is the finish line that students have envisioned for four years. There are so many things students have to think about other than graduation: graduation parties and getting all of the required credits, to name a few. For some students, the most exciting time comes with prom and the promposal.
The promposal, an elaborated and staged request to be someone’s date to prom, has been a long tradition, especially in the U.S. culture.
Like the old-timey debutante ball, proms were originally started at the college level.
Although his origins aren’t sure, we know that the first promposals started to appear in the early 2000’s.
“All I wanna do is go to prom with you”: These are the words rewritten by kids from Adam Sandler’s song, “The Wedding Singer,” as one of the first-ever promposals.
“Back when I was in high school, I had a promposal from my boyfriend at the time. He asked me to go to prom with him in a fortune cookie,” said Spanish teacher Marta Grabowski and LN alumni.
“I didn’t expect it at all. I know that he spent a lot of time manually putting the paper in the cookie, and I think it was really cute.”
Grabowski continued, “Proposals have changed a lot. I feel like now, it is more about how extravagant it is. When I was in high school, they were cute moments that didn’t have to be extravagant or public.”
As Grabowski mentioned, the stereotype that is built around the promposal has been changing through the years, from the idea itself to the cost of making it happen.
The cost for a promposal is quite flexible, depending on what you’re planning to do.
The average cost, though, has increased throughout the years, becoming much more popular to prompose in the most particular and unexpected ways.
The University of Illinois conducted a study showing that on average families spend up to $324 just for the promposal, without including the expenses for the prom itself.
This year, junior Elizabeth Bierlein received her promposal from William Dominianni while she was working at the Root Beer Stand.
“I drove up to my work on Saturday, and my boyfriend was standing under a sign that said, “Lizzie, I’m rooting on us for prom, will you beer my date?” It was really cute, I didn’t expect it at all,” said Bierlein.
To have a great promposal, is not necessary having a big budget and Dominniani proved this to us.
“To set up the promposal I asked my coworkers the address and the information about the Root Beer Stand’s manager, I talked to her since Lizzie and I have been hanging out for a long time and I wanted to do something special for prom. The manager was super nice and we found the time and date to put on the sign. Then I bought basic stuff at the store to do the sign on the poster. I didn’t have to pay anything to set up the sign at the Root Beer Stand, which was really nice of them,” Dominniani said.
