PROMFEATURES FRIDAY, April 22, 2011www.fchsbagpiper.wordpress.com 8

Senior Chayla Pica is not dress shopping this year for prom. Instead, she is making her prom dress--out of duct tape.

The duct tape dress started out as a way to earn money for college. She is entering a contest for the best made duct tape dress, which offers scholarships for the prizes.

“I am mainly doing it because I want a dress that I actually like and can afford. Also, it is for a scholarship, fi rst place gets $5,000. Even honorable mentions get rewarded,” said Pica.

She has been working on her dress for a couple months, planning and sketching it. She is currently beginning the process of actually making it.

“The most challenging part is the beginning. Figuring out how I want it and how to actually get it together is stressful. I am devoting my nights to work on it, and I have amazing friends who are willing to pitch in a hand,” she said.

Although the dress does not require sewing skills, Pica might embroider to enhance tape.

“Since it is tape it can just stick to itself, but I may hand sew some of it for that nice stitching tape cannot compare. I may glue on rhinestones,but I want as much in the detail as physically and mentally possible,” she said.

The dress will not be

regular silver-gray duck tape color.

“I am going with a navy blue or dark green, mainly to accent my red hair. I’m not going with a theme, but I want an era. I’m so excited to accessorize. I’m not sure what I am doing yet, but I know it will be amazing,” she said.

Pica’s duct tape date is Tyler Grube, but they are not attending prom together. Once she fi nishes her dress, they will begin his tux.

“We are going to try to get the 50s but maybe with a futuristic twist. I want a 50s type dress. The hair, the style, I love it all,” she said.

Grube is wearing the tux for a picture that will be submitted to the contest, then will change for prom. However, Pica is wearing her dress to prom.

“I’m doing the duct tape tux because Chayla asked me to after her original partner dropped out. Plus, she thinks gay people have more style. And I can sew, which will be interesting with duct tape,” said Grube.

In addition to dressing up with Pica, he will be attending three proms: FC, New Albany, and Jeffersonville.

“I’m most excited about FC’s prom. Jeff will be interesting, and New Albany will be fun. Both girls from the other schools that I’m going with are girls I worked with. They asked me to go and I said yes,” he said.

Grube is not concerned about costs for the three

proms.“My date for New Albany

bought my ticket. I’m wearing a suit for New Albany that I already have because tuxes are expensive. I am renting a tux for FC’s prom, though. Both my dates for New Albany and FC are wearing navy blue. Since navy blue and black don’t match, I am dressing in black and making a bow tie to match the beading on my dates’ dresses,” he said.

Dinner, an important part of prom, has been controversial for Grube.

“Me and Avery are going to our friend Amanda’s house for dinner for FC’s prom. I am trying to get my other friends to go to to Eddie Merlots’s, an upscale dining restaurant in Louisville that I work at,” he said.

No matter what is decided Grube knows he will have a fun evening because he will be able to enjoy his favorite part of prom and dresing in formal wear.

“I like seeing what everyone’s dresses look like and look like dressed up. Although, the worst thing you can do is take prom too seriously. I hate seeing girls in pretty dresses that look like they spent four hours on their hair,” said Grube.

He enjoys dressing up and is looking forward to the craziness of three proms.

“I like craziness. Basically, it’s an excuse to dress up and go out to a nice dinner three weekends in a row,” he said.

BY CHELSEY CARRFeatures Co-editor

Movies like “Carrie” and “Prom Night” depict ex-treme stories of prom night going wrong; however, sen-ior Kathryn Brewer discov-ered prom can still go amiss without the silver screen.

“Last year we rented a limo from for 15 or so peo-ple and each paid $60 for it. We were all excited to see it pull up, but the fact that is showed up 30 or so minutes late didn’t excite us,” said Brewer.

While waiting outside

in a small tent in an effort to keep dry from the rain, Brewer’s limo fi nally ar-rived. Despite the delay, the limo driver did not apolo-gize. The group decided not to worry about the limo and headed to dinner at Proof.

“We had a nice dinner and then we called to give the limo a 20-minute heads up for when we’d be ready to go, they required a call 20 minutes beforehand,” said Brewer. “After 45 minutes of waiting for them to show up, we all started to debate on whether to walk in the rain or wait.”

After a failed attempt to contact the limo service to fi nd the location of their limo, the group members’ parents got involved.

“Most of the parents had been called by then and so they had called and called the limo service. They didn’t pick up. Finally, an hour later they showed up, which was at that point two hours into the prom dance. They didn’t say a word or apolo-gize for anything,” said Brewer.

Once again, the group made an effort to overlook the transportation trauma and got excited to arrive at prom. When the dance end-ed at 11 p.m. they contacted their limo driver, expecting a 20 to 30-minute wait.

However, the limo did not arrive until 1:30 a.m., two and a half hours after being contacted. While waiting for the limo, its passengers had to sit on the side of the street after the doors were locked and the lights went out in the hotel at midnight.

“By that point a parent was on the way with a van, and we were beyond furious. As you can imagine, our par-ents were more furious since their kids had been left on the streets at wee hours in the morning,” said Brewer.

When the limo fi nally ar-rived, the group was once again denied an apology

“The short, stocky lady hopped out of the passenger side and opened the door for us, with an irritated look on

her face. We all asked where they had been and said we wanted our money back, prom was ending soon, and something could have hap-pened to us,” said Brewer. “As the driver was coasting down the streets of Louis-ville, he turned around and told us to get out and walk. So he pulled off on a ran-dom street corner near the highway and said, ‘Get out now.’”

Brewer said her group had to beg to stay in the limo. The driver fi nally took them to FC, and arrived just as after prom was shutting down.

“The only things I got to do were two games of Bingo, and the balloon drop like everyone else,” said Brewer.

Prom group laments late limousine

BY GRACE RUNKELFeatures Co-editor

GRAPHIC BY CHAYLA PICA

MULTIMEDIA >>MMTo see a video of readers’ choices about prom dresses, tuxes, restaurants, salons, music, and transportation, go to fchsbagpiper.wordpress.com. For more coverage of prom after the event check out the website.

Duc

t tap

e di

vas Senior Kathryn Brewer recalls

frustration from last year’s prom

Senior Chayla Pica uses an innovative fabric choice for her prom dress, helping further her education

“It depends on whether they are dating or not.”LEVI JOHNSONSenior

“The guy should buy the tickets because it’s a common courtesy.”BAYLEIGH CHANEYJunior

“The boy should buy both tickets for prom.”HARRISON DAVISFreshman

“It depends on who asked who to the prom.”CARMEN KEEHNSophomore

When buying tickets for prom, who should pay?

Tim Dench’s tips for trouble-free transportationDench is the radio/tv teacher at FC by day but is a wedding videographer by night and weekends. He has all the inside tips for limo transportation in the Kentuckiana area.

GRAPHIC BY CHELSEY CARR

AND DANIELLE REHOR

If you make your reservation far in advance, check back on a regular basis to confi rm that they haven’t double booked you.

In Southern Indiana, Extreme Transportation is a very reliable company.

Students should make sure they get a signed contract that has a clause about penalty for lateness.