"An Evening with the Stars" was the name of the 8th grade "prom" that I had the privilege of putting on this year. The dance was the Friday before the last week of school and it was way more of a production than I ever thought it would be! The students had been talking about this dance for a month now, they had hair appointments, nail appointments, limos reserved, tux's rented, they even had dates! I do not have any recollection of my 8th grade dance being that big of a deal, but then again times are very different now!
The catch of this whole thing is that I had asked in about April if there was anything we needed to get started for this dance and the group of people I asked said "no we are going to meet about it later and get everything figured out." I figured that since I was the student council "head" and had thrown every other dance this year, that I would be in charge of this one, but since they said they were going to get it all figured out I left it at that and quit worrying about it. However, that isn't what happened. The MONDAY before this FRIDAY of the dance the 8th grade principal approached me and asked me if I had everything prepared for the dance. Uhm, no..... Everyone had just been so busy that they forgot who was doing what and who had said what etc.. So within a week I had to put this dance together, all I knew was that the DJ had already been reserved but I had to do the rest. When I was in 8th grade I remember my Mom being on a committee of about 30 Mom's that put together our dance. My 8th grade dance was more of a production to the Moms putting it on than it was to the students going. When we walked into the entrance hall of the school it was transformed to look like a plane, when we exited the plane we were in Italy, which was really the auditorium, it was beautiful. All I knew when thinking about this dance I had to put on was that I probably wouldn't be able to do something that spectacular and that my committee would probably consist of about 3 teachers that out of the kindness of their hearts would volunteer to help. Actually these are the wonderful women that helped me put this on, it wouldn't have happened without them! Tiffany is on the left and Wiggins (her last name) is on the right.
That week we transformed the auditorium into a hollywood-red carpet-bomb diggity place. We draped the balcony, stage, and greenery with white christmas lights, made humongous banners, decorated tables, made wall coverings out of bulletin board paper and gave the DJ a glamorous nook of his own. The afternoon before the dance we turned the hallway into a red carpet filled with paparazzi, lights, and a back drop to take pictures in front of. When it was all said and done, I was so incredibly proud of us three girls that I couldn't stand it! We had actually done it, I had never planned a party in my life and frankly it is not my forte but we did it! Only one thing held us back, a local radio host, Busta Brown, was supposed to be there to MC the dance but he called and was sick. At this point we were all so tired that we were hoping the kids didn't notice and enjoyed the DJ by himself because there was nothing we could do about it now!
The students had a BLAST and everything was successful! We didn't have any problems, any issues, it was all a night to remember, except the chocolate fountain decided not to work which I consider a BIG problem, haha! Anywho, this whole process was EXTREMELY fun and I would do it again in a heart beat! The students all looked phenomenal and walked that red carpet with their "graduation swagger", it was so rewarding to see how excited they were to be there! It is crazy to think how fast life has flown by! It feels like just yesterday I was having dances put on for me and now I am the one putting on dances! When did we grow up, haha!
Chris and I are headed to Boone this weekend, for those of you who aren't from around here that is where I went to college! I am so excited to get up there and spend some time in the mountain weather! I miss Boone like crazy, you can't beat the summers up there, they are the best!
Here are a few pictures of the dance night!
Red Carpet Hallway and Picture Backdrop, sorry its blurry!
Tables and wall covering
Food Table
Banner!
DJ on the stage!
Chris came to help be the paparazzi!
Yes! I got out there and did the Cupid Shuffle with them!
Hahaha! I loved it!
