The Class of 2011 brought creativity and excitement to prom proposals this spring.
Ricky Marcotte ’11 ordered 1000 customized balloons that said, “Kristina, Prom?” that he spread around Paresky Commons. “I woke up at 7:00 in the morning, and I spent the first two periods filling up balloons. And during 5th period, another day student friend took me and my friend Michael to fill [Kristina’s] house with [balloons],” said Marcotte.
When Rex’s friend texted her and demanded she come to Commons during conference period, Kristina said she had a feeling that Marcotte was going to ask her to prom. “I knew he was aking me soon and was going to try to embarrass me, so I figured that was what was going on,” said Rex.
“The first balloon I saw was hanging off of the hand sanitizer when you walk into Commons… [Ricky] handed me a giant bouquet of balloons and tied them to my bag and made me carry them around for the rest of the day,” said Rex.
Ben Brodie ’11 woke up at 5:45 AM on the morning he planned on asking Hana Kim ’11 to Prom and walked out of his dorm at 6:00 AM sharp. When Kim went to breakfast at 7:30 AM she saw large chalk writing scrawled on all paths within 100 yards of Paresky Commons, which read, “Hana, Prom? –Ben.”
“I wanted to do something big, literally, really big. My first idea was to put [the proposal] on a giant balloon and to put the balloon in the sky, but I didn’t have a balloon. I was brainstorming with some other buds, and we were all thinking of ideas and I latched on to [the chalk idea],” said Brodie.
Adam Levine ’11 papered the paths around Commons with fliers mimicking the front page of The Phillipian as a prom proposal to Julia Zorthian ’11, who he met working on the Phillipian board CXXXIII.
The headline asked Zorthian to prom, accompanied by a photo of the two of them and a fake news article. Levine and his friends threw the fliers all around campus, especially in Commons and in the Library.
“He had to sneak into The Phillipian room to use the InDesign [for the layout],” said Zorthian. “I was at ASM and someone said they had something for me and handed me the flier…It was pretty confusing but it was exciting.”
Dan Larson ’11 asked Gabbie Cirelli ’12 to prom by giving her a series of clues that ultimately led Cirelli to look on the back of a framed picture that Larson had given her for her birthday. Larson said, “One day when Gabbie wasn’t looking, I took her phone and set a random alarm that said find the surprise in your wallet, wherein she found an origami crane that said open me, and in the crane it said, ‘take the picture I gave you for your birthday out of the frame.’ Then on the back of the picture it said ‘Prom?’”
“I’m not a big fan of very public askings, and I didn’t think [a public proposal] would do our relationship justice, so I tried to incorporate some weird quirks of our relationship into the prom asking like how I put stuff on her phone and hid stuff in her bag,” said Larson.
Cirelli said, “I was really surprised! When he said check the surprise in your wallet, I didn’t think I was going to get asked to prom in that way.”
Aniebiet Abasi ’11 recited a poem during All School Meeting to ask Ryan Hartung ’12 to prom. The poem took an hour to write and a week to edit, she said.
“I got an invitation from Pat Brady to audition for the All School Talent Show, and usually I write [poems] about something that really bothers me or something that I’m passionate about at the time, and I was really bothered by the fact that I didn’t have a date yet because I’m awesome. I figured I’d asked someone and make a big deal about it so that’s where the poem came from, and [ASM] was a really nice opportunity to do it,” said Abasi.
Jeb Roberts’11 serenaded Casey McQuillen at a Coffeehouse to invite her to prom. He concluded the show by tweaking the song, “Stacy’s Mom,” saying “Casey” instead of “Stacy” and “prom” instead of “mom.” “I just turned red and was laughing. It was so clever!” said McQuillen in an email to The Phillipian.
Mike MacKay ’11 asked Jackie Lender ’11 to prom by singing to her at an All School Meeting. “I wanted to do something that would be memorable and visible, so I figured using an all school meeting would be an opportune venue,” said MacKay.
MacKay sang “I’m Yours” because he thought it was a recognizable song that had a fitting message and was in his range. “I planned [the proposal] out mentally quite some time before hand, and as the date approached, I started pulling together the band and background choir,” said MacKay.
Nneka Aunkor ’11 left Min Jae Yoo’12 a thirty-second facebook video to ask him to prom. I used the shout outs he gave me in his presidential video and speech and incorporated them into the [prom video],” said Aunkor. Yoo commented on the video, “yes” and Aunkor received many “likes” for the video.
“I was getting ideas from friends and the general consensus was that I should make a video [to ask Min Jae to prom], but I didn’t know what the exact content would be,” said Aunkor.
Prom Proposals surprised with their extravagance this year. “I think people went more public this year because there were some pretty public ones early on, so I think the guys and girls asking tried to step it up,” said Zorthian.
