Creative 'prom-posals' highlight East Hampton High School junior prom
A lot of the buzz around Saturday's East Hampton High School junior prom concerned the “prom-posals” that took place leading up to the big day — as well as one that happened in front of everyone during the affair.
Grace Amaden shares Spanish class with her prom date, Jordan Foster.
“I designed a pair of shoes. One had ‘Prom?’ written on it and the other had ‘2016,’ ” Jordan explained. “I got the teacher to send Grace out of the room and then I put the shoes on her desk.”
Grace recalled: “I got back in the room and walked all the way across before I saw the shoes, and I was like ‘Whaaat?!’ Of course I said yes.”
East Hampton junior Joey Cirillo made his prospective prom date work a bit harder.
“I sent her on a scavenger hunt,” he said, referring to the puzzle that his prom date, Julie Ehm, had to solve.
“He left a clue in my locker, then left another with one of my favorite teachers,” Julie said. “There were five in all … the last led me back to my house, and there was Joey holding a sign asking me to the prom.”
For Julie, the trek was well worth it. “It was fantastic,” she said with a big smile. “I loved it.”
East Hampton student Emma Foster used her melodic skills to land her prom companion, Max Bahi.
“The teacher and whole music class knew what I was going to do,” Foster said. “I took the song ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ and changed the lyrics to ‘What would you do if I asked you to prom?’ The director pretended to pick me to sing randomly.”
Max was confused initially, but it all cleared up soon enough.
“I was wondering why people were recording the class with their phones,” he said. “But I was totally surprised … of course I said yes!”
However, there was one more prom-posal yet to come, as Luis “Danny” Diaz was already with his girlfriend, Stephanie Yanes, at the junior prom. At East Hampton, there’s a junior prom and a senior banquet, and Luis made sure to get Stephanie locked in as his date next year by taking the microphone and asking her to the banquet.
“The principal and some of the teachers helped me get the microphone, and I asked the DJ to have some romantic music ready,” Danny explained.
As red and purple club lights filled the air, Danny popped the question, shocking Stephanie and drawing thunderous applause and screams of support that echoed throughout the high school cafeteria, which was transformed into a courtyard with soft white sheets draped down from the ceiling, creating an atmosphere akin to a city nightclub.
Did becoming the total center of attention work for Stephanie?
“Yes,” she said as she beamed a massive smile, still recovering from Danny’s prom-posal. “I feel good.”
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Looking for a pizza spot or fresh cup of coffee? NewsdayTV has places you can eat at this weekend.