Popping the Prom Question

Although promposals are something that are common now, they didn’t always used to be such a big thing. Prom used to be a relatively low budget affair, held in the school gym or cafeteria, not the “fantastic displays of excess” that have become part of the contemporary high school experience.
According to Caitlin Dewey in an article in the Washington Post, the first promposals began in 2001, when students in a Dallas high school asked each other out to prom over the loudspeaker, using modified lyrics from the song “The Wedding Singer” by Adam Sandler to pop the question.
Dewey describes later, more elaborate promposals as they began to catch on in poularity between the years of 2002-2005. From leaving “ trails of rose petals from their dates’ houses to the school, ” to an Idaho teen sneaking “ an alarm clock into his girlfriend’s room, where it [rang] at 3 a.m. and display[ed] a message ‘Hope its not too late — will you go with me to the prom,’” promposals became more imaginative and elaborate.
As social media became more and more ingrained in teen life,  promposals started to go viral. Dewey reports that “By 2011 … 20,000 prom videos were uploaded in a one-month period of the 2011 prom season.”
In 2012, teens started to ask celebrities and other people that “wouldn’t typically look their way.” and by 2014, there was the peak in people promposing and sharing their experience on social media.
Canton High School has caught onto this ritual like the rest of the world. There seems to be the stereotypical promposal of a poster and flowers, but that’s not always the case. Some people in our school have come up with different and interesting ways to ask their dates to prom.
One great example of a unique and different promposal in our school is one that Addie Obrzut did for Clark Walburger. Not only was her idea fun and unique, but she was going against the norm of the guy asking the girl to prom.
It all happened Wednesday April 26th in the school cafeteria. Addie is a part of the Canton Color Guard, and did the promposal during one of their practices. According to Addie, “Clark always comes to watch a few minutes of our practices and he is always excited by our new routines, so I wanted to make a routine just for him.” She and her teammatescame up with a routine to the song “La Da Dee” by Cody Simpson.
To plan this wonderful event Addie told the team to “come to practice early so [they] could tape the letters on [their] silks.”  As well as tape the letters, Addie also “quickly taught [the team] the 30-second routine at the beginning of practice” which would end with “each member unfolding their silk to spell out ‘PROM?’”
When they were all good to go, all they had to do was wait for Clark to get there. When the moment came, everything went to plan. “I felt so relieved when it was over,” Add ies recalls. “Everything had gone perfectly and Clark was so happy. I was really proud of my team and I was honored that they had all been so enthusiastic about helping me.”
Lindsay Vacca, the junior prom queen, got a promposal that was fit for a princess. Her boyfriend, Jacob Benedetti, dressed up as a prince, and gave Lindsay a glass slipper, just like in the movie Cinderella.
“I looked out the window and I saw a bunch of people in my yard and Jacob was in a prince costume holding a glass slipper on a pillow” Lindsay recalls. “Diego [Noriega] was playing the snare drum and there was an audio of a trumpet playing… Nick Lagonigro read a scroll about going on a magical adventure to prom.”  Jacob then  “put a crown on my head and gave me the slipper, which was engraved with ‘L and J Prom 2017’ from Disney World.”   
Lindsay says that the fact that he surprised her made it that much better, even though “[t]here were a ton of people involved. Jacob had been in contact with my mom for weeks trying to figure out the perfect day to do it. Jacob’s mom helped him plan the whole thing and his sister did too so they were both there helping everything go smoothly.”