When junior class sponsor Heather da Silva heard back from the Hilton Rialto Place venue with a quote over four times the budget for this year’s prom, she knew that prom planning for this year would have to majorly pivot.
“After basically having a mini heart attack and recovering, I realized that these are not people that we can work effectively with,” she said. “So, I started the scout for a new venue. Another one almost popped up but the dates didn’t work, and then I made a few desperate phone calls and somebody was like, ‘Hey, what about the Crowne Plaza?’”
After over a decade of West Shore prom being hosted at the same two hotels, the junior class student government — which is in charge of organizing the event — decided in the midst of budgeting challenges that the upcoming prom will be held at a different venue: the Melbourne Oceanfront Crowne Plaza. Set to take place on Friday, April 4 at 7:00 p.m., the new venue is far from the only major change coming to prom this year.
“Collectively, we decided that sit-down meals at prom are just really expensive and nobody really wants to eat a full meal,” junior class president Bailey Kidd said. “If they do, they [usually] do that beforehand on their own with their own little groups, so we thought that we could save a lot of money and use it for better things if we were to just do little hors d’oeuvres for prom.”
A sit-down dinner has been a longtime tradition at West Shore proms, with students typically being offered multiple food choices, including an alternative vegetarian option. Last year, the food offerings were a salad with either grilled chicken, steak, or a grilled portobello mushroom.
“We came to a consensus with [da Silva], who’s been planning this for a while,” Kidd said. “Dinner for prom was kind of a Mr. Fleming thing, the previous principal. So with the new principal, we realized we have this opportunity to now switch things up a little bit.”
Tickets to the event are $75 for juniors and guests, and $35 for seniors. According to da Silva, food offerings will include “nibbly finger foods,” vegetarian options, and a variety of cake and dessert options, and they will be offered in staggered time periods to prevent students getting overwhelmed or options running out for those who arrive later.
“The theme for the event is the Great Gatsby, so it’s a very roaring twenties sleek and elegant kind of a theme,” da Silva said. “I’m looking at [student-made] ticket designs and I’m already blown away by a lot of the ones I’ve seen. I’m really encouraging people [to] go with the theme. All those beautiful bias cut dresses from back in the day, the elegant tuxedos, this is really that chance to live out that Gatsby fantasy in a beautiful venue.”
Earlier this year on the junior class Instagram account, @wsclassof2026, a popularity poll was held for prom theme ideas. Out of options like “La La Land,” “Paris,” and “Golden Age of Hollywood,” “Great Gatsby” won over the most students.
“I think it’s just such a beautiful, traditional, classical theme and I definitely encourage people to dress in-theme,” Kidd said. “I know that’s not typical [and] people like to just do their own thing, but I know that the venue is going to be decorated very well and I think that if people were to dress and kind of go along with the theme, it would just make the whole thing really cool.”
Da Silva explained that as a result of the new venue’s beachside location, she is working with the venue hosts to organize a time frame for students to head outside and get pictures on the beach in hopes of “making it something really special.”
“This is definitely going to be a positive change,” Kidd said. “Especially the food change for girls, [since] you usually don’t want to be eating a ton when you’re dressed up, and especially if you’re being served a meal when there’s not really as many options as there would be if you’re just being served a bunch of little snacks.”
Kidd added that as a result of saving money on paying for a sit-down dinner, more funds can be invested into other aspects of prom like thematic decorations and making ticket costs cheaper for students. Assistant Principal Sarah Perry said that she, along with Assistant Principal Glenn Webb and Principal Buster Clark, all plan on attending the event.
“I enjoy [prom] very much and really like getting dressed up as well, and getting to see how everybody cleans up so nicely and everybody looks so grown up,” Perry said. “We expect everybody to make good choices, so if anybody shows up and it’s clear they have not been making good choices, they will not be allowed into prom and we will find them a way home.”
Perry said that a major concern of hers was safety with parking, and she encouraged students to arrive early and find carpools with friends.
“Just like with Homecoming, we didn’t have any sort of dress code for that or turn anybody away for wearing something,” Perry said. “At this point, we trust parents and students to make appropriate and flattering choices.”
Junior class secretary Tadi Zivotic said that the date chosen, despite being compatible with a majority of events like senior Grad Bash, still conflicts with events like the FSPA conference and the HOSA club state conference.
“People that we had to contact, whether it’s the decorator or the venue or something like that, they just don’t understand the concept of a budget,” Kidd said. “So we would tell them ‘we can only spend this much’ and then they’d come back with an offer that we’d have to pay twice as much as what we originally said. It was just really hard. We switched back and forth between dates and places, but overall, now that we’ve gotten everything really set that it’s really good, it seems to be that’s all behind us and we don’t have to worry anymore.”
