Every school’s prom is different and here at Farmingdale, it’s go big or go home. The buzz around it starts in September of  junior year, and moves along until the eventual day of prom. When the dresses, hair, and makeup ideas start to come to mind, from then on that is the only thing that matters to a 16-year-old.  

From personal experience, dress shopping is not what one would expect. Everything that you thought you wanted is completely wrong and you basically just start over. Color, length, and style of the dress overwhelm you and before you know it you are reaching out grabbing things that you never thought you would wear. Your mother is struggling to help carry all the dresses that you’ve thrown into her hands to try on, but the hardest decision comes down to one thing: which one? Grace Hungerford, or “promzilla” as her parents call her, has tried over 50 dresses. She says, “The hardest part of prom is finding the PERFECT dress.”  After being so excited to find the perfect dress, the trying on process is the most time-consuming part, looking into the mirror and seeing the dress on in several different angles having a million thoughts go through your head. Will my hair look better up or down? Should my makeup be glam or should I have a more natural look? Does this actually fit me or do I just want it to? Then after asking yourself these questions for the next 10 dresses, it becomes tiring and you begin to not want to do this anymore. Then, your mother comes back and hands you a dress, and of course you shut it down immediately because she suggested it. After a battle of her saying “ just try it on!” you give in and find yourself in the dress and know that this is the dress you are going to wear to prom. I guess moms are always right.

Now, moving on to the next step, which are the ¨little¨ things like hair, makeup, and accessories. Grace continues to stress about which shoes will match her dress. She says, “I’ve asked a lot of people what shoes to wear and still haven’t found a pair. I don’t know what to do.”

Next: hair and makeup. Looking through endless pictures of possible hairstyles and makeup feels like trying to find the right dress all over again. Once you like your look, it’s time for the trial. This is where you go to salons a couple months prior to get an idea of what you want your perfect prom look to be. This tends to reduce some of the dreaded prom stress. Once all this is figured out, which it eventually will be, the excitement of getting all dressed up starts to settle in.

The road to prom will cost a TON of money and a lot of stress. Will all of this be worth it? Well, we only have our own junior prom once, so I certainly hope so! See everyone there!