Rising Trend in Prom Proposals

By LAUREN DOLOWICH, RACHEL JOHN and BEN KRONENGOLD

Originally published June 2013

Prom proposals by Jericho High School seniors have become increasingly elaborate and public. With prom approaching in less than a month, seniors are becoming more and more anxious to have someone ask them to prom.

Of all of Jericho’s prom proposals or “promposals,” senior Alex Genatt’s proposal to senior Carly Sandler created a great deal of buzz on Long Island. The Facebook photos of this proposal received over 120 likes. Genatt first surprised Sandler with flowers while she was eating lunch with her friends. Then, Genatt said, “Look up,” and when she did, she saw a plane with a banner that read, “Carly, will you go to prom with me?”

Though Sandler said that her promposal was “cute” and is very excited for prom, she does not believe it is necessary to make such elaborate promposals. “People do it to one up each other,” Sandler said.

Similarly, senior Jackie Hwang was asked in an elaborate way by her boyfriend, senior Zachary Chin. Chin built the word “Prom” using wooden posts in a forest area and then lit the posts on fire. Since Hwang and Chin were the only two present at the sight of the fire, Hwang said, “It was very sweet since it was not publicized.” However, Chin posted pictures of the event on Facebook.

 One of the biggest challenges that “promposers” face is trying to create a unique way to ask that special someone to prom. Among those who faced this obstacle was junior Zach Siegmann, who worked on perfecting his promposal for weeks. Siegmann agreed he felt pressured to make an original promposal. “I felt that it definitely had to be cute,” Siegmann said.Siegmann decided that the perfect night to ask his girlfriend, senior Nikki Koenigsberg, to prom would be on their two month anniversary. Siegmann created a scavenger hunt throughout his house which led to a prom poster that spelled out “Prom” using lit up candles.

“He put different poems on different things, and at the end of each poem it said go to the next clue. One was attached to a teddy bear, one to a rose,” Koenigsberg said. Siegmann even wrote the poems himself.

Senior Chase Landow acknowledges that promposals are getting to be too much. “Except mine of course,” Landow jokes. “I showed up at her house with 50 balloons and when she pulled up to her house, she saw the balloons with a bag, which had a gift inside,” Landow said. Landow agreed that his promposal to junior Paige Hutner may have been elaborate, but argued that, compared to what other people have done, his promposal was more personal and more meaningful. Landow continued that his gift, which was a pair of Valentino shoes, doesn’t just “last two seconds,” and is something Hutner can have forever.

On the other hand, Hutner faces additional pressure from the promposal. “We are good friends, but now that he got me shoes, I have a little pressure to make sure I have the right dress for them and to make sure that he’s happy that he chose me as his date over other girls,” Hutner said.

Despite the prevalence of publicized promposals, there were several intimate promposals.

Senior Julie Pliskin was asked by her very close friend, senior Adam Birbach.  Birbach greeted her with flowers and created custom M & Ms which read “Prom?” on top of her favorite snack, frozen yogurt. “My prom proposal definitely met my expectations. I thought it was perfect because I love frozen yogurt and he definitely put effort into it, yet it was not over-the-top,” Pliskin said.

Although there is pressure on promposers to outdo one another, whether through a poem or an airplane, all a promposer wants is a girl to say, “Yes!”