So happy to have attended prom this year! I’m only in 8th grade, but the online school I’m with allows 8th graders to attend so that’s what I did.

Let’s talk about my dress first: yes I did make it. Made it the night before we left for Ventura/LA, CA (where prom was held). In 4 hours. I don’t ever, ever suggest trying to make a prom dress in 4 hours. I was pretty tired by time I finished (it was like 1 am) so I didn’t bother trying it on before stuffing it into my suitcase. Wrong move. When I put it on before prom, one of the back straps was way too loose. Luckily, I knew myself well enough to bring matching thread and needle just in case. I fixed it last minute right before taking these pictures. If you’re wondering, the dress itself is just made from dance-wear knit, has a self-lined bodice, 6-gore skirt, and one pocket (didn’t have time to sew another one, haha). The pattern is self-drafted.

Two pictures that I would have loved if they didn’t turn out blurry. Prom started at 8:00pm and we started shooting around 7:50, so not much time to get the camera to focus. And how pale am I?! I planned to get a tan and obviously that didn’t happen, as I was inside almost all of the time and the city is basically drowning in fog, no sun at all.

Shoes. I wore these 5″ nude heels from Chinese Laundry. Absolutely love them and my feet didn’t hurt as much as I thought they would after 3 hours of standing/dancing, but I don’t think I’m going to do that again.

More about the prom itself, it’s a 2 day event held in Ventura, southern California, about an hour away from LA. There’s a coffeehouse/open mic night during the first night, prom itself is held the following night, and the seniors have a graduation the afternoon of prom. I did speak at the coffeehouse event, which was super nerve racking (it was the most people I’ve ever spoken in front of, around 200), about my book and I think I did okay. We drove down there from the San Fransisco/San Jose area in the early morning and I stayed up the previous night making my dress, so I was tired by the end of that night and just glad to get a good night sleep to say the least.

road trip’in (going to be singing books and having a talk at LA Public Library from 2-3pm on Sunday, 6/5. stop by if you’re in the area!)

A photo posted by Angela Lan (@lan_angela) on Jun 3, 2016 at 1:43pm PDT

The day of prom, I spend the morning and most of the afternoon helping out with decorations and setting up. The theme was “A Night at the Oscars,” which explain the red carpet and everything. It’s not easy as it sounds, with a blank room to turn into an oscar-themed party room, but so fun and satisfying! The girls and I built the following 10 feet arch from scratch, using poles and screws. It turned from a 4 person job to a 8 person job at one point because it was way harder than expected (the screws didn’t fit into the designated holes, like what?). The end result was beautiful though, with streamer-wrapped poles, life-sized cutouts of famous Hollywood stars, this gigantic movie scene clapperboard, amazing photobooth, string lights, metallic star streamers hanging from the ceiling, 3D light-up wire movie clapper, Hollywood themed glitter in star, film-reel, and movie maker shapes, and much more. I wish I had more pictures of the room to share!

The night itself was a little awkward at first since no one really knew each other. For the first 2 minutes while people were still entering, those who were already in including me just stood there in a circle not saying anything at all, just the occasionally awkward laugh. That’s online school, but in the end everyone had a great time (at least I did) just talking, dancing, taking pictures, and having fun. Here are some more photos:

prom was amazing ??#lssconnect

A photo posted by Angela Lan (@lan_angela) on Jun 5, 2016 at 11:57am PDT

Well, I hope you found this post somewhat entertaining. I had an amazing weekend and met so many amazing people!

xx
Angela
PS: If I’ve put a picture of you in this post and you would like it to be removed, just let me know! So sorry, I’ll do that ASAP!