May. The busiest month in a high school senior’s life. Summer is around the corner, however the stress of their final school year coming to an end is there. Luckily prom is there to help them have fun.

The senior class this year is having prom at the Renaissance Hotel in north Austin at the Arboretum on Saturday, May 20 from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

“We chose the Renaissance hotel as our prom venue because it’s a beautiful hotel that will allow us to plan our prom the way we want,” senior Bridget Alvarez said. “It’s in an excellent location and there’s plenty of parking.”

The theme for prom has changed multiple times throughout the process changing from “Brazilian carnival” to “A Night in New York City”.

“The theme is now going towards a New York City route,” senior Carlyn Crow said. “We had to change the theme because the room has changed and New York fit the aesthetic better.”

Planning for prom doesn’t happen in a blink of an eye, it takes time to prepare for the big night.

“We started planning for this ever since the seniors were freshman,” class sponsor Deanna Dellana said.

Preparing for prom was not a solo event. Multiple people contributed with communication being key to making sure everything ran smoothly.

“We’ve tried to delegate a lot of the jobs amongst the class officers so that no one person has all the responsibility,” Crow said. “It takes a lot of emailing vendors and communication with our advisor and the bookkeepers and our event coordinator to make sure everything is done properly.”

Coming up with a budget is usually first on the list, however the senior officers paced themselves accordingly.

“The class officers are all smart and sensible enough to understand what is absurdly too expensive,” Crow said.

Through fundraising such as spirit nights at restaurants, t-shirt sales, after school concession sales, and eventual ticket sales the 2017 class raised the funds solely themselves.

“We raised close to $10k throughout the past three years, senior Carlyn Crow said. “We expect to sell approximately 600 tickets so we’re hoping to make between $18k-$24k from tickets.”

With prom coming up soon, tickets will be going on sale starting April 24. They will be sold for $30 from April 24 to May 5, then increase to $40 from May 8 to May 19.

“The rest of the funds will come from ticket sales,” Crow said. “The leftover money goes towards Senior Breakfast and our Senior Class gift.”

Of course prom isn’t only about breaking a sweat on the dance floor, there’s always plenty more to do.

“To make sure there is fun for everyone we’re literally going to have pool tables, ping pong tables, air hockey, and foosball,” Crow said. “There’s also going to be both a flip book maker and a photo-booth.”

Crow wants all prom attendees to have a great time and enjoy everything.

“We are determined to make sure no one is underwhelmed with it because nothing would be worse than me hearing someone say ‘prom was boring’ or ‘prom is so overrated,’” Crow said.

With all the preparations coming to a close, prom is just around the corner and excitement fills the air amongst the senior class.

“Planning the theme and thinking about decoration gets me excited for prom because I can see all the components come together,” senior Lauren Noe said.

For Alvarez prom is going to be one of her final goodbyes as she ends her senior year with her friends.

“Prom for me is just a fun night to see all of my friends looking perfect,” Alvarez said. “It’s a great way to end senior year before we all part ways.”