Dancing Under the Lights: Riverbend High School Prom

With the Spring being a highly anticipated time of the school year for many students, prom only adds another level of excitement! This year's prom was held on Saturday, April 20th at the Fredericksburg Expo Center, but the work behind the scenes began back in October when the committee kick-started their weekly meetings.

Each year, the job of planning and hosting prom is given to the junior class officers, and they are tasked with choosing a theme, decorating, and everything in between. This year’s board consisted of five students, and historian, Natalie Wolfe, said, “I think my favorite part of planning for prom was just being able to work with some really talented people! Everyone I worked with had brilliant ideas and were so motivated, which inspired me to work harder as well.” 

Upon their first meeting, they were tasked with choosing a theme for this year’s prom. Of course, with this, came a Pinterest board of ideas, as the group worked to find a theme that was unique but still perfect for a night that the student body of RHS was sure to love! They unanimously decided to go with the fun and elegant theme of “Under the Lights,” inspired by the Disney movie, Tangled. They had an elaborate vision for the dance, and met with several decorating companies, conveying their thoughts on what was a necessity to be included to tie the theme together. They knew they wanted lots of lanterns, and flowers with a purple and gold color scheme!

With prom quickly approaching, they each worked hard to tie all the loose ends together. They hired a business to build a balloon arch, bought the remaining decorations, and met to craft the DIY centerpieces. Junior class secretary, Y-Dan Nguyen commented about the centerpieces, saying, ”My favorite decoration at prom was the table centerpieces. I loved how the lights in the middle had the subtle Tangled sun symbol, and the flowers surrounding the lights were very beautiful and fit very well with our purple/gold color scheme!”

As prom day finally arrived, the committee met bright and early to set up all of the decorations at the Fredericksburg Expo Center. Regarding the set-up, Nguyen said, “It was nice seeing all of our hard work finally coming together and I’m really happy with the result!” 

It was then time to begin the exciting part of the day, each going their own way to get ready for prom! 

After time for group pictures and dinner the long-awaited moment arrived: the doors of the Expo center opened promptly at 7:30 and students began to flood in as the party began. 

From the decorations, to the snacks, to the photo booths, the students were quite impressed with the dance, and the night was one thoroughly enjoyed by the many students that attended. Also, at the dance, the exciting titles of prom court were announced. This year’s prom court included four juniors on the court, and four seniors. This year’s Riverbend prom queen was senior Diana Askew and prom king was won by senior Simon Collier.

With the dance ending at 11:30, the night was far from over for most. Riverbend High School sponsored an after prom at the Central Park Funland for students, which some would say is where the real fun began! The after prom included games, rides, food, and amazing raffles for each student. 

The night was surely busy and exhausting, but the memories that were made were worth every bit of it– and, if you were to ask the student’s of Riverbend, they would likely, gladly repeat the night of fun all over again!