Senior Daniel Guin nervously drove down the road on one school morning to pick up senior Sydney Egan. One hundred green, orange, red, blue and yellow balloons filled his car and the hope that his promposal would turn out perfectly filled his thoughts. He knew it was a risky move but if she said “yes,” he knew he would have an awesome prom date.

With prom right around the corner, on April 12, promposals have been common among upperclass students. A promposal is usually a unique, cute or creative way to ask a date or friend to prom.

“I would suggest that if you are asking someone to prom, you should make it exciting. It’s something you only get to do once, so a simple ‘Will you go to prom with me?’ is boring,” senior Daniel Guin said. “Surprises are always the best.”

The common thing is to go all out when asking someone to prom. Whether they are just a friend or someone another student may be dating or considering dating, the common consensus is to “go big or go home.”

However, senior Rachel Blair flipped roles. She drove her car and journeyed out to the beach to ask her boyfriend, junior Vincent Moreschi. She put a message in a bottle and dug it into the sand so he could find it while they were digging in the sand.

“He did not think the bottle was for him at all; he was so surprised,” Blair said.

Some students even hop in their cars and travel to the beach or a romantic restaurant for the picture perfect promposal. However, going on an adventure to the beach is not the only option.

“My date asked the chef at the restaurant to write ‘Prom?’ out in chocolate and bring it out to me,” senior Amanda Guzman said. “I was so excited, I shrieked and yelled ‘OH MY GOD, yes of course!’”

Food is also a common trend among students. Senior Jeff Joseph asked his friend, senior Kaitlyn Lobkovich, with a cookie cake that had “prom?” written on it. Senior Kyle Ings also asked with an edible way to his girlfriend, senior Katie Loveland, by having the sushi chef write out the question on the same plate as their sushi.

“He was driving to Takeyama and I was like ‘OH! Are you asking me to prom in sushi?’ He was bummed that I guessed but I acted surprised anyway,” Loveland said.

During prom season, students can also look to social media for ideas or inspiration. Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook all have numerous accounts dedicated to the various ways people can be asked to prom.

Senior Tyler McGregor found inspiration for his promposal, to senior Alex Miller, on Twitter.

McGregor went to one of her softball games, equipped with balloons, five softballs that each had a letter on them that spelled out “Prom?” and  a Cheeze-Its box with “I hope this isn’t too cheesy” written on it. With the help of his friends and Miller’s mom for her car keys, he created the set up for his promposal.

“After setting all of [the promposal] up, I went back to the game. It was raining so I got an umbrella and held it over her so we could get back to her car. When she opened the door, she was so surprised.” McGregor said.

Social media sites act as an archive for promposal pictures throughout the years, so underclassmen have a wide variety of options to take inspiration from.

“Last year, I went to prom and he [graduate Iñaki Erkicia] invited me over for dinner, and afterwards we went on his balcony upstairs outside his room, and it was lit up with lights and a big bouquet of roses spelled out prom,” senior Lyndsi Grose said.

Romantic gestures like sparkling lights and beautiful flowers can seem to come straight from the pages of a Nicholas Sparks novel, but they can become reality with the right ideas and even some help from friends.

“I talked to a few of Kaitlyn’s friends to put a few ideas together to ask her to prom,” Joseph said.

Friends not only can help a student ask someone else to prom, but they can also become a student’s own prom date. Alumni Gio Gonzalez came in as a visitor during lunch to ask senior Addy Below to her prom this year as a friend.

“I saw people with their phones out [when Gonzalez came into the cafeteria] so I knew something was coming. He stood up on one of the lunch tables, read out the poem he had written on a poster, he also gave me flowers and a photo album for our future prom pictures,” Below said.  “I was so surprised. It was the cutest thing ever.”

A simple “Will you go to prom with me?” is also acceptable among students if an elaborate plan is not what the asking student is going for.

“Of course it’s fun to go all out, but no one should feel obligated to do a big promposal,” Below said. “As long as it’s the person you want to go with, it shouldn’t matter about how they ask you.”