Prom Planning Help

[Kate and Pete]

I'm going to turn to my creative, frugal friends for help! I'm the chair of the prom committee this year (it has been a blast) and the committee and I need some suggestions.

Our theme is "Evening Masquerade," and it's being held at a local country club (I don't know if I can post the link, but it's the "Bar Harbor Club"). The club itself is spectacular, and we want it to be simple and elegant. Our colors are burgundy, black, and gold. The committee is buying each guest (around 200 or so) masquerade masks, but we're having trouble finding masks on a stick for the girls that are 2.00 each. I have found all sorts of spectacular masks with elastic for that price -- and I'm talking FABULOUS masks!

Any ideas for tables? We're doing finger foods, so no place settings - we just need centerpieces. We're also looking for ways to bring out the theme, but they don't want cardboard masks everywhere...I'm thinking simply the fact that all the kids will be wearing masks will pull out the theme...

I also need punch ideas - it will be served in plastic champagne glasses...

Any help is appreciated!!!

 

[Kate and Pete]

Any creative help out there?

 

[xanman]

If you want to use masks on a stick, but can't find what you want at your price, why not forgo the centerpieces, spend that money on the masks and make some simple gold cylinders to use as a vase for the table (spray paint lengths of cardboard rolls that carpet comes on) and put the masks in them for eveyone to help themselves to. You could add a couple of peacock feathers to the "arrangements" so they still look good when empty, also it will give people a place to park their masks when they are not using them.
If you can find elastic masks in your budget, just buy those and staple or hot glue a stick to them, either a thin dowel rod or maybe one of the plastic ones like they use for balloons would be heavy enough.

 

[jennifer293]

you could put 4-6 helium either mylar or latex balloons (in the coordinating colors) with curling ribbon and held down with a gold weight (rock or something with weight wrapped in gold foil with ribbon to finish it off). I did an anniversary party and we used white pearl and silver mylar balloons with white tulle and hershey kisses in the tulle to weigh the balloons down and placed the silver confetti all over the tables..it was really pretty.

 

[xanman]

I just realized that it was the masks for the girls that were the pricey ones. Maybe instead of masks you could use black lace fans. Not sure how they would compare price wise.
Ask the kitchen for help on your punch, tell them you want it to be a dark burgundy color, black cherry koolaid is a good color for that or just add food coloring to whatever punch you have. You could make ice rings with gold plastic coins in them, or black silk roses. Any cheap silk flowers you gather up can be spray painted black and used on the tables, NOT IN FOOD, they don't all have to be the same, put them in a jar with a glow stick and wrap the jar in gold lame or tulle or paint the jar too, the light will bounce up.
Instead of plastic champagne glasses that don't hold very much, and are kind of pricey, I would look at cheaper clear plastic glasses and see how much the glow ice cubes, stir sticks etc would be. You can get them in red, I think it would look pretty cool in a really dark punch.

 

[momofpirates]

Here's a neat idea for centerpieces that is pretty inexpensive and very quick and easy.

Supplies
Tall thin wine glasses (glass not plastic)
Metallic tissue paper
Ting-Ting (you can find this at Michaels or Hobby Lobby in the dried flower section. It is tall twisted wood sticks that come in different colors and you can spray paint it in the color you want. We did silver and they looks fabulous).

Criss cross two sheets of tissue paper. Place a few stems of Ting-Ting (TT) in the middle of the paper. Pull the paper up around the base of the TT and jam this into the glass. The TT will be tall for the centerpiece and the metallic tissue will give you lots of color. It might be easier for you to place the TT on one piece of the tissue paper and secure with a small rubberband. Then place the other piece of tissue paper around this before jamming it in the glass.

Floralytes (submersable) in fishbowls with water and irradescent easter grass also looks really cool. The lights come in different colors. We are doing this for our daddy daughter dance this year. The lights are reusable with on and off switches. I found them on-line by do a google search.

You can rent fishbowls or usually by them at a dollar store. One year we cut the tops of carnations (just the pedals) off and floated them in water in the fishbowls. These were really pretty. Don't know if you could get black carnations.

For the masks, you might want to try using candy making sticks. These are white, so they would look nice and not too expensive. They would probably be a little stronger. I think a bag of 30 was about $4.00 at our local craft store. Watch for those coupons.

Our favorite punch recipe is 7UP and White Grape Peach juice. It's pretty forgiving if it spills.

Have fun planning. Keep us posted on your progress!

 

[englishteacha]

I think if you're going for elegance, I'd think of how a masquerade party of days gone by would have been decorated. I'm thinking like "Romeo and Juliet." What about floating candles (depends on fire regs, I suppose)? Sometimes you can find really dark red roses (I remember seeing artificial ones at Michael's crafts a while ago). If you couldn't do the candles, you could float the rose buds/flower in the water, or put a few flowers in a vase. Parents might even be willing to lend bowls to float things in. Ask your local greenhouse/florist to lend large plants or donate "day old" flowers. My proms had lots of greenery because a local florist always lent plants for the prom. White lights look nice on ficus trees and other large plants to make them "glow."

Edit: Just looked at the website for the club. Wow! The setting is so beautiful, you really don't need much for decorations. If you're using the room with the domed ceiling in the pictures, I'd just go for a low centerpiece on each table!

 

[chiefdragon]

It is great to see that some one else is using the same theme that we are using this year for our prom. I am also a class advisor that is in charge of prom this year. We have used a few different catalogs to order our supplies. Prom Wishes (promwishes.com) and Stumps (stumpsprom.com). I don't know if this helps at all, but if you PM me, I can give you even more detail of what we have been able to do for just under $8,000 and have over 500 students attending.

 

[Kate and Pete]

You are all giving me such great ideas! Keep 'em coming!

 

[HunnyPots]

A couple of years ago we did the masquerade theme for our band banquet. We got really cheap plastic masks for Oriental Trading, spraypainted some of them gold, silver or black, glued on feathers, glitter, or jewels from the craft store and then added a stick. They really turned out nice. I'll try to find a picture.