When Jimmy Olson wanted to ask his girlfriend, Katie Baudo, to prom, he knew that a casual, "Hey, wanna go to prom?" in the hallway at school wouldn't be enough.
A roll of scotch tape and 50 pieces of paper later, the Jamestown High School senior had himself a prom date.
"I took a note that told her to meet me by her car, and gave it to her last period teacher. Then, I took 50 pieces of paper that said 'Prom?' and I taped them on her car," Jimmy said.
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Prom-posals, an elaborate way of asking a date to prom, are becoming more and more popular among high school students. Jimmy Olson, from Jamestown High School, surprised his girlfriend, Katie Baudo, by taping 50 pieces of paper reading “Prom?” to her car after school.
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Gone are the days of students agreeing to go to prom together while in math class. No longer is a text message the official way to secure a prom date. And phone calls? Not anymore.
Jimmy is part of a growing trend known as "prom-posals" - elaborately staged invitations to prom that take after elaborate wedding proposals.
And, while cute, creative and romantic prom invitations aren't anything new, the amount of effort and, at times, money is.
Jimmy's approach was relatively cheap, although time consuming. He landed on the number 50 for his signs, because he figured that it would be enough to cover Katie's car.
"It was a good way of asking. I had fun, and a lot of people got to see how I asked her," Jimmy said.
He added that a lot of people tend to use window paint to paint prom messages on cars, but he wanted to be different.
"I figured I would use paper, it would be easier to clean up," Jimmy said.
Not all prom-posals are coming cheap, though. Remy Colin, owner of Aerial Messages, a company that charges $600 for a plane to fly a banner with a message on it, told the Associated Press that this year is the first year that his company has done prom invitations.
Students that aren't able to dish out that kind of cash are going the same route as Jimmy, who said that Katie really liked the way that he chose to ask her.
A YouTube search of "prom-posals" returns videos of many creative ways that students are asking their potential dates. Lockers filled with ping-pong balls, original songs and flash mobs are becoming common ways to secure a date.
"A lot of people go out on a limb to ask in a neat way, just to make it fun," Jimmy said.
Papering Katie's car with a prom-posal is sure to create a memory for her and Jimmy just as exciting as prom itself - which, for Jamestown High School, will be at the end of this month.