So, if you’re like anyone in the United States, or the world for that matter, you’re disappointed about something.
Global pandemics are at BEST disappointing. We should recognize that. Those of us that live in countries with adequate healthcare and other utilities should take a minute of reflection. Those of us with enough food and enough survival needs met to realize we’re bored should take note.
But if you’re a high school student, I’m sure one particular disappointment weighing on you is prom - it got cancelled, didn’t it?
And you already had your dress, didn’t you? Well good news! It’s not a waste! We can make lemonade from these lemons, y’all. It just requires a bit of flexible thinking. So, here we have it: 5 things you can do with your prom dress, even if wearing it to prom isn’t one of them:
1
Host Your Own Semi-Formal
My friends started doing this after high school, actually. We missed having a reason to be fancy and started hosting semi-formals at Christmas time during college, when everyone came back home to visit family Harness these circumstances for good and start a tradition your friends can enjoy long after prom season this year: host a semiformal.
Wear your dress, do your hair and nails, get flowers, have a nice dinner. Do everything you were going to do on the day of - just over a weekend sometime later. You could host it in the summer, and work on decorating a friend’s yard with fairy lights. Or if you’re more up for it, rent out a community space.
Definitely work on your streaming playlist now - get your friends invested in the idea by inviting them to add to a shared playlist.
2
Add Prom Photos To Your Graduation or Senior Photos
If you were the person who was most looking forward to the photos - contact a local photographer! If you were planning to have senior photos over the summer anyway, you might be able to use your prom dress as an outfit change in one of their packages. I guarantee you - the photographer will love this idea.
It doesn’t even have to be a specific kind of session. If you get enough friends together, I’m sure there’s a photographer out there who is willing to do a group shoot of you and your besties. Pool the money you would have spent on dinner for the photographer!
3
Trash The Dress
What? You are saying to me that I should ruin this prom dress?
Yes. Yes I am. Make it fun! This has been a wedding trend for a while. I love the idea of using colored powder for it, but other people go swimming in their dresses, paint on them, roll in the mud in them … you get the idea.
I actually had a student once mention this to me and I thought it was the actual best - the student didn’t have a date anymore, and had decided not to go to prom. So they trashed the dress.
Catharsis can be good - you are right to have all kinds of feelings about your prom being cancelled out from under you. Maybe this is a way to take it out.
4
Support A Charity
Really, you could do this after the other suggestions (except trashing the dress - don’t donate a trashed dress. But I think you know that already ;] ). There are tons of local charities all around that accept prom dresses for other people in need. This is a great way to pay forward to another person who might not enjoy prom next year for other reasons.