Prom committee creating an ‘Enchanted Evening’ for Bearden students

From intricate centerpieces to large and complex trees, prom preparations are underway as Bearden’s prom committee plans the school’s very own “Enchanted Evening.”

At the beginning of each year, the prom committee gets together to choose a theme and immediately begins planning. This year is no different, and preparations are going smoothly despite a few setbacks – including one that involved building cardboard trees.

“Can I say that we lost some of the instructions at one point? That was a delight, but we found them so prom is still going on,” senior and secretary of the committee Lauren Leisenring said.

Though this obstacle appeared, preparations are mostly on schedule, junior Karin Turnmire said.

“We’re going to have to do a couple weekends where we do work because the decorations were involving a lot more work than we thought they would, but we’re getting along so it’ll be good,” Turnmire said.

While the decorations are in order, the venue became a problem when the Clayton Center in Maryville had been booked for the date of prom.

Thankfully, the committee was able to book the Knoxville Convention Center instead.

“There are only a certain amount of venues that will hold as many students that we have at Bearden, so that really narrows our choices,” one of the sponsors of the committee Mrs. Autumn Suranofsky said. “There really are only about three or four places that we can go, and if we don’t book it a year or more in advance, then that’s going to be taken up by weddings or by other proms or whatever.”

Mrs. Suranofsky, along with Mrs. Anna Graham and Ms. Amy Ballard, helps the committee get ready for prom from decorating the venue the day of to choosing the theme.

The process of choosing the theme this year was similar to previous years. Students on the committee get together and propose ideas drawing on various inspirations like prom magazines, Pinterest, and their own creativity.

“What’s really great is when they pick out something that’s not in the prom book but that they’ve come up with on their own, and then we got to try to piece it together from the very bottom,” Mrs. Suranofsky said.

This year, Leisenring proposed the theme that the committee eventually voted on. She got her inspiration from Pinterest while also taking into consideration other themes from Bearden’s and other schools’ past years.

“My theme won, so like, you guys are welcome,” Leisenring said with a laugh. “Out of the options we had and knowing what other schools have done recently and what our school has done in the past years, we wanted something that was going to be original and not too cliché.”

From the original ideas and effective execution, Bearden’s prom is sure to be a success this year like every other year has been.

Prom will be May 9 from 8 p.m. to midnight at the Knoxville Convention Center. Forty tickets are still available for seniors and juniors who are eligible.