I think it was Monday evening of this week when Natalie casually mentioned to me, “Hey mom, you know when I said I didn’t think I would be going to Prom? Well, my friends and I have a plan! We want to go as a group, and hopefully you can drive us because they want to go in the Natalie-mobile, and we’re going to Saguaro Ranch Park to take photos before, and then after we’re going to have an overnighter at (insert name I can’t remember)’s house – so I’ve decided I’m going.”
I mean… Yay, and all that, but could you give me more than 4 days to get you something to wear? Kids these days, they have no idea… I got right on it. Figured out what style of dress she wanted, got the best idea of a size I could manage, found one that looked beautiful, some matching shoes and a purse, and got them all ordered, hoping against hope that everything would fit.
The shoes, they did not. Which was a pity because they were KILLER shoes. But also, she would probably not have made it 5 minutes wearing them, as they were mile-high platform heels!
I took her to Kohl’s on Friday night and she found some of a more sensible height that worked, so all was well. On the way home we stopped at Walgreens so she could pick up some nails.
Today was the day. She had her college class in the morning, came home and cleaned a little (including the van), and then Laurent came over to curl her hair. They had scheduled two hours for that, and it took the whole two hours.
We arrived at the park right at 4pm, with Paul along to be my chauffeur, and Ellie to help carry purses, shoes, phones, whatever needed minding, and I with my camera. The girls had been thinking of just doing the usual phone pics, and those usually turn out looking pretty nice with phone cameras as good as they are these days. But I wasn’t about to have my girl go to prom and NOT get some portraits! I even checked into permits, and sure enough, for portrait photography you do need a permit at that park. I got a one-day permit for this time, but if I end up doing more there I’ll go ahead and get the one year. I’d wondered about how busy it would be there on a spring Saturday, and sure enough, there was a full wedding party with team of about 7 photographers, chairs, props, lights, video, the works; at least one Quinceañera party, and about a dozen other groups of varying sizes taking prom pics. Since the other girls were still on their way, we made our way across to one of the buildings that was less busy, and when we had a chance, I did some solo shots of Natalie.
After the girls arrived, I did some group shots and then offered to do solo portraits of everyone. They all did beautifully – so easy to work with such photogenic subjects!
I wanted to get Ellie in on a shot or two, after all her assistance – and then one of the lovely moms offered to get some shots of us together with Natalie, which was so very kind of her!
At last we finished the photos, and it was time to head over to the party. The girls said adios to their mothers who were there with them, climbed aboard the Natalie-mobile, and off we went, with a stop at QT for some drinks (we were all parched!).
At some point along the way, their overnight plans changed to eating at Denny’s and going bowling after the dance… which morphed into eating at the Bowlero. I picked Natalie up there at 11:30 – with blistered feet and truly “partied out”. She will sleep well tonight.
And that is it for Prom 2025. One down, and assuming every kid goes both junior and senior years, nine to go – and next time at least we’ll have more advance time to plan, because it’s definitely happening.
