Prom, prom, prom, prom..man I can't get enough of that word. haha. I havn't written a lot about it, and some of you already know. But I will start at the beginning.
About a year ago, mom and I came up with the idea of planning a homeschool Prom. We'd heard about other people planning homeschool proms, "banquets", and theater nights. So we thought, hey why not plan one of our own. So we talked to some of our friends and came up with the the "Prom committee".
We've then spent this past year planning, tasting, viewing, arguing, meeting, and selecting to come up with the 1st annual Carolina Capital Homeschool Prom "A Starry Night"..catchy huh? ;)
We had to start from complete scratch.
We've then spent this past year planning, tasting, viewing, arguing, meeting, and selecting to come up with the 1st annual Carolina Capital Homeschool Prom "A Starry Night"..catchy huh? ;)
We had to start from complete scratch.
First on the agenda was where in the world we were going to do it? so we started looking. we looked at a couple different venues in the area..some indoor places..some out door..some big..some small...but as soon as we saw our venue, we all were hooked line and sinker, and we all knew we were having prom there. The Sutherlan Estate is a GORGEOUS old 18th century estate. You really have to click on the link and see it for your self. It was absolutly breath taking, and one of my FAVORITE things about our prom. And I basically I want to get married there. :)
Next it was on to the Caterer and DJ. Mmm..the caterer.. this was one of my favorite parts of the planning process. Caterers mean food...and food means tastings...and tastings mean yumminess in my tumminess. :) We got to go to a lot of different resturants and caterers to taste their food while they try to convince us why their the best and why we should hire them for prom. After all the tastings, again there really wasn't any question about it. Rocky Top/1705 Prime was going to be our caterer. As for the DJ, we got acouple recomondations from different people and the sutherland, and am prettttyyy sure we ended up with the best DJ around. Brian Pate Entertainment. He apperently also does a lot of events in the area, including some of the public and private schools proms. But he was VERY good. Really good music, "lights and lazors" and smoke machiens on the dance floor, and was great at interacting with everyone and getting them to dance.
Vincent van Goghs painting "A Starry Night" was our inspiration for a theme. We had dark blue iradesent table clothes, all different shaped vases full of water with yellow tinsel/easter grass like stuff in them and water proof lights imerged in the solution. All placed on mirrors for the center piece. It looked like a sparklng stars in the middle of the table! We had TONS of star punched iluminaries. A TON. lining the walk ways and walls. The real blessing in all the decorations was the tent. We had booked a tent with the rental company when we started planning months ago. But they contacted us a week or two before the prom, to say apperently there was a wedding the next day at the sutherland, and wanted to know if we could just use the tent the wedding was using instead of having to put ours up and then break it down to put up the wedding tent all with in 24 hours. The tent the wedding was using was a BIG upgrade from our original tent, so right on that! :) The tent superly duperly helped wrap the whole vission of a starry night together perfectly!
One of the best things out of all the things that made our prom absolutly amazing and truly the best... was the benefit. Yes, benefit. We decided early that we didn't want this to be your ordinary typical prom. Why not bless someone else in the process? So as a part of the carolina capital homeschool prom 2010, we held a benefit for the Kolfe boys orphange in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia. An orphange very dear and close to the hearts of many people involved with prom. Half way through the night, Ellie got the chance to get up and talk for a couple minutes about Kolfe (which her and her parents visted for the first time when they went to Ethiopia to pick her three youngest sibilings) and have everyone watch a few minute slideshow. But the high light of the "presentation" was that were able to connect to one of the boys there, Solomon, via Skype. ( The Mestases met Solomon when they went to the orphange for the first time. Since then he has created such an amazing relationship with Mrs. Eileen and the Mestas Family through emails and skype. Mrs. Eileen was able to go to Ethiopia again last year to visit him and attend his graduation where we graduated Valedictorian of his class! He now is waiting for the last step in his process of being able to come here on a full scholarship to the College here at Southeastern Seminary. Join us all in prayer as we wait for his Visa to be excepted at the Embasssy there. As soon as it passes we will be on his way to America! You can read more about his amazing story at Mrs. Eileens blog ) Prom night most conveniently fell on Solomons 19th birthday, so via skype we 120 american teens got to sing him happy birthday and to let him know there are people out there that care and love them!. It was AWESOME. We were also able to raise $200 dollars from our collection box for the boys scholarship fund to help them go to school. We can't wait to see what we can do next year!
There were so many little things that are involved in planning an event like this, that we people don't even think of. A choice had to be made on everythinggg...like even napkins. NAPKINS! yes we thought of courses we'll have napkins..but cloth or paper? square or rectangle? what color? iy ya yi! haha choices everywhere we looked!and were all ready to jump right in, under one condition. What ever we planned had to be spectacular and like nothing anyone around here has been to or seen. ... well my friends.....MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. 
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