Prom season is here, and with it comes the pressure to pull off the perfect promposal. While students often spend hundreds of dollars on elaborate promposals and flashy gifts, what makes it truly unforgettable is not the money. It is the originality, effort, and genuine personalization poured into the promposal; relying on copied ideas or posters only signals a lack of care and a lack of genuine attempt at creativity.
A big step to crafting a great promposal is developing a specialized theme or motif. It is important to understand the main theme and topic the proposal will be based on; although this can be a difficult step, it is a good idea to use the individual as a reference or a starting point. If you are unsure of their preferences or interests, it can be especially helpful to ask their friends for details and then browse online for inspiration based on those interests while forming your own original ideas with light inspiration.
Matt Gilmour, woodshop teacher, highlights this point by sharing his own thoughts on what really makes a great promposal. “A good promposal is original, and it does not have to be like everyone else’s; it just needs to be special, meaningful, and unique to that couple.”
By having the promposal mainly correlate to the individual, it not only showcases that you acknowledge them and their interests, but also how attentive you were in noticing those interests. Many individuals may have interests that comfort or make them feel happy; being able to see a proposal centered around those interests would be very rewarding. Numerous students would appreciate being noticed and acknowledged outside of the identity they present at school.
Senior Bella Kang, who received a promposal, shared that she values the creativity behind it. She emphasized how an individual’s effort can showcase sincerity far more than an extravagant display. “I like how special I felt when I received my promposal.”
Another step in approaching promposing is demonstrating clear effort and originality in your work. Ripping off a promposal online, word- and design-wise, showcases an inability to put in effort. Nobody would want a copied poster from the internet or an unoriginal idea that was not from the heart. It can show carelessness when someone chooses not to be creative for the individual and instead focuses on finishing quickly.
For senior Miu Crosby, she agrees with this point, stating that regardless of how the promposal is made, the idea and creation should be original. “I feel as though creating a promposal does require quite a bit of effort and creativity. It shows the amount of effort and affection they put into their idea, even when they may have other obstacles they have to get by.”
An important factor while making a promposal is legibility and sentence structure. Sloppy handwriting and disjointed sentence placement can ruin the way the person reads the poster. It is crucial to create a thumbnail or rough illustration of what your poster will communicate and look like before finalizing it.
Agreeing with this idea, senior Bernardo Rios shares how sentence structure and legibility are important while creating a promposal. “I agree. I feel like when you look at a poster, it really is important to see if both the writing and how it is read make sense.”
By having a blueprint or guideline, you can easily modify the poster, the appearance, and correct any grammar or structure issues. Making minor changes can drastically change how the poster is viewed and read.
You may see online, especially on TikTok, many young adults showcasing extravagant promposals with enormous bouquets, expensive gifts, and highly detailed posters, which can lead to many students feeling pressured to outdo others. However, you should not compare your work with others; what really matters in a proposal is your own effort and creativity.
Creating your own poster and gifts is more than enough; it shows honest effort and care. Handmade work requires your own time and effort, which is far more meaningful than purchasing items made by others. Handmade crafts such as keychains, flowers or other DIYs showcase your thoughtfulness, creativity, and resourcefulness.
Senior Sunny Luu shared that the difference between store-bought and handmade promposals lies in the care and effort invested. “It is good to handmake promposals. I think there is more love stored in them than if you were to just get them premade or bought.”
Making promposals is challenging, since students must balance school, personal life, and assignments. Many may argue that it is better to purchase gifts and have others create the proposal. Although students are busy, if you are truly genuine with the individual, taking time out of your day is significant and telling of your character. By sacrificing your own time and effort, it showcases the compassion and care you put into that individual.
Promposals should not be a contest over who created the best or most extravagant display; they should be an act that showcases genuine effort and originality for that special individual. By putting care, personalization, and thought into your promposal, you can make others feel seen, valued, and excited to attend Prom.
