Blast from the Past - Junior Prom

If there's one thing I recall vividly, it's junior prom!

Putting it all together, I was in charge of invitations, and up until to day, I'm incredibly proud of what I came up with! Compared to what we had for our seniors' graduation ball, my design and the actual invite was near perfection. It took more than 10 revisions to get it right (pricing and everything) and if I recall correctly, the invitation itself, patterned after a tuxedo with golden accents cost around PHP 300 each. Not bad for a multi-layered, foil-stamped and embossed card printed on actual Egyptian parchment and laminated black board paper. I know it's a gross excess, but the school approved it, and our seniors' ball invite was so bad, I guess mine had to cover it for another school year.

front of the LSGH 2009 Junior Prom invitation
designed by: EJ Mariano

inner card of the LSGH 2009 Junior Prom invitation
designed by: EJ Mariano

(not in photo: back, and interior artwork) 

The theme was inspired by Italian vineyards, hence the black, gold and red color motif, (a sanitized version of what we originally wanted--Italian Mafia!) and it was called "Cosa Nostra" which roughly translates to "our thing." And it was! Aside from the invitations, I was in charge of setting up the entertainment so I hired the acoustic jazz band "PureSound", a staple in all of our family events. I gave them a song list that included John Mclaughlin's "So Close" and Edwin McCain's "I'll Be."Again, a move that was near-perfection.

And now, I will talk briefly about my date that night. Lucky enough, my girlfriend at that time said yes when I asked her out to prom. I literally walked from the radio station to her school (SPCP) just to give her the invitation since that was a Friday and car traffic was so bad, walking was the only option. We were a little over 3 months into our relationship, which lasted for 2 years and 8 days. 'Wag gumawa ng issue.

suit designed by: EJ Mariano

suit designed by: EJ Mariano

Yes, I designed my own suit. Braved the streets of Divisoria to boot, to get the fabrics right. If it helps, I tell myself that the fabrics I got were from Giorgio Armani's collection which cost a fortune. It came with a light brown vest made of Versace cashmere that I also designed myself, that isn't visible in the photo. It was, visible later on that night, if you know what I mean. Ha ha.

That night was just magical. Despite my anticipation that the roof would somehow cave-in because of a magical earthquake, everything went according to plan. The food was great, the music was just perfection and the venue looked so dreamy, with a huge chandelier made of lights. The callalilies  I suggested last minute added a nice touch. Specially on table 57.

'Til the next post!

That kid on the radio.