It was the event of the season–at least for graduating seniors of Wilton High School’s Class of 2015, as they celebrated their Senior Prom on Saturday night, May 30. Students flooded the Matrix Banquet Facility in Danbury with freshly manicured nails and faces beaming with excitement. Wilton’s young women and men wore elegant dresses and pressed tuxes, bought each other corsages, and took hundreds of pictures that must still be clogging everyone’s newsfeeds on Facebook and Instagram.
Most students started the night at pre-parties, where parents gathered to photograph students in their finery and send off their kids with wishes of fun–safe fun, but fun nonetheless. Students arrived at the prom venue in party buses, stretch limos, school buses, hired cars, and in their own cars. Some students attended the prom with a date while others flew solo. There was no prerequisite for attending, aside from being in the 12th grade at WHS.
Wilton High School alum and crowd-favorite DJ Doug Bogan (WHS ’09) disappointed many of the graduating class when he couldn’t perform at Homecoming this past year, but he made up for it by DJ’ing prom, along with a more recent WHS alum, Kenny Pokora (WHS ’14), who also spun tunes. They played a mix of rap and electronic music ideal for dancing.
As for what everyone wore, the girls’ dresses ranged from floor length to above-the-knee and everything in between. Some had straps, some did not; some were one color, some patterned. Most of the boys wore typical black tuxes, but there were a few powder blue or white tuxes sprinkled throughout the crowd. Of course, in a crowd as large as the the class of 2015, someone was bound to be a bit more original–some boys threw-it-back to 1976 and arrived sporting plaid jackets or white pants paired with a blue jacket. Many of the girls artfully wore make up favoring dark colors and drawing inspiration from the current “smokey-eye” trend, and showed off a varied mix of up- and down-dos. The hairstyles ranged almost as much as the dresses did.
The Prom Committee earned raves for a well-planned event. One of WHS students’ favorite books, The Great Gatsby, inspired the evening’s theme. Seniors found long pearl necklaces and flapper-inspired feather headbands placed on their tables and wrapped around their chairs. The buffet dinner allowed seniors to choose what they wanted for dinner; options ranged from pasta and chicken parmesan to salad and chicken. Desert options included either vanilla or chocolate cake.
WHS teachers chaperoned, some with their spouses, some alone, to help make the prom more memorable and special.
Despite the fun, students started leaving the dance by 9:15 p.m.. While that may seem to be an early end-time, every dance-experienced senior knows that the best part of prom is not the actual event or Instagram ‘likes’, but the “after-party.” Seniors reconvened at private house parties and stayed until the early hours of the morning.
Even thought Prom 2015 may not have been at WHS’ usual venue–Stepping Stones–or lasted very long, it was undoubtedly still a unifying experience that helped further unify the Wilton High School Class of 2015. One thing’s for sure–we all left still feeling, “A1way5 and Forever.”
If you have any prom photos you’d like to add, email them to editor@goodmorningwilton.com.
Stephanie Scamuffo, a member of the WHS Class of 2015, is a GOOD Morning Wilton senior intern.