One of the earliest decisions the prom committee needs to make is whether there will be a prom king and queen. Here is some information on how it's done in America (after all, that's where this whole prom thing has come from in the first place) and some thoughts about whether it fits for a UK school prom.

American prom kings and queens

Being the king and queen of a prom is a Big Deal in America. You can tell by the number of films and TV shows that feature it. I'm old enough to remember a whole episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that revolved around the contest to become prom queen for example.

In many schools, electing a prom king and queen is nothing more than a popularity contest. The candidates need to be nominated and seconded, and then weeks of crazing campaigning involving posters all over the school and bribes and secret deals are carried out frantically right up until the vote, with the winners announced at the prom itself.

Nowadays however, many American schools are only letting students who have achieved a certain level of academic grades, or those who participate in extra-curricula activities be nominated. I suppose they're trying to encourage better performance at school and also improve the image of academic success. I quite like the idea of linking that prime moment in the spotlight with more than just a popularity contest.

Does the whole prom king and queen thing work in the UK?

Well, yes, if you want it to! Some schools don't like students to be too distracted by their campaigns and so don't allow the whole popularity contest aspect of voting for a prom king and queen. If that's the case in your school, you could do it differently…

Choosing the prom royalty on the night

You could ask a group of teachers, or a secretly allocated group of guests (who would be excluded from winning) to agree on a prom king and queen on the night itself, perhaps based upon their outfits and how well they're dancing.

If that seems like too much of a minefield, then simply arrange for a ballot on the night, just like the general election. You could give voting slips with each ticket, so people can only make one vote each.

Adopting the high flyer approach

You could always set criteria for nominees like being in a school club, getting certain grades or having been positively involved in school life in some other way. It depends on your school; that might cause an uproar in some and for others it might be a way to improve how much people participate and how well they do in that prom year.

I don't think that being prom king and queen has taken off in the UK as much as it has in the States, but who knows what will happen as it grows in popularity. And who wouldn't like to have a fuss made over them?

Are you having a prom king and queen? How are you going to decide who it should be? Let us know in the comments!

Prom season is under way and if you haven't already had yours, it's not far off.

We'd love to hear about your school prom, and we're planning to run a regular feature over the summer looking at what schools have been doing all over the country, and we need your help!

If any of you are planning a career in journalism or writing for the web, or want a project for the summer holidays by interviewing your fellow prom goers about their experiences on their prom or proms in general, this is a chance for you to get some exposure and have something to write on your university applications to boot. We'd love to gather a team of informal reporters who'll write an article for us about their school prom, and if there is a photo or two as well, that would be brilliant.

Fancy being a reporter for your school prom?

What we'll do for you
•    We'll send you some guidelines so you're not facing a blank page alone
•    We'll edit your article a tiny bit to make sure it's as polished as possible
•    We'll put a bio about you at the end of the article with a link to your site if you have one (and a picture of your shining face too if you want!)
•    You'll get all the credit and a permanent web page link that you can send out to family, friends, talent scouts ;o) But seriously, we'll keep the page safe with a permanent link so you can use it on applications for work experience / internships
•    We'll send you a little pressie to say thank you

What you need to do
•    Drop us a line through the contact form to say you want to join the team so we can send you guidelines
•    Write the article – around 500 words long is fine and that's only one page in Word.
•    Write a little bio about yourself (remember the golden rule of web writing: would you be happy for your Gran to read it?)
•    Send any pictures if you're happy for them to be published on the site

How does that sound? Drop us a line through the contact

Why have a prom theme?

The Prom Organiser’s top three reasons for having a prom theme:

1. Having a prom theme makes it easier to design posters, invitations and tickets
2. The prom venue decoration options can be narrowed down to a focused design
3. Prom guests can choose to join in with their outfits (e.g. colours, accessories) and that’s a lot of fun for them too

Prom themes make everything to do with design easier, as without a theme, your options are simply endless. The prom theme brings motifs, colours and prominent shapes with it that can inform everything you design for the prom. For example, if you go for Arabian Nights, it immediately conjures up images of desert sand, rich fabrics in vibrant colours, and the arch shape of Arabian architecture, just for starters.

How do you choose a prom theme?

The first step is to brainstorm as a committee. Go crazy! Come up with all the wild, wonderful ideas you can and write them down on a big bit of paper. Don’t think about whether it’s feasible, it’s all about the ideas at this stage.

Next, take a step back and look at each idea, considering the following questions:

1. How could that prom theme help with visual design?
2. Is it easy to make or find prom decorations that fit in with that theme?
3. Can we make good use of this theme on a tight budget?
4. Would anyone find this theme too awful / offensive / stupid to be able to enjoy their school prom?

The last one might be strange, but let’s say one of your brainstormed ideas is a zombie prom. Zombie films and books are popular at the moment, but there are lots of people that find them scary rather than funny. It might seem like a huge amount of fun to people who think that sub-genre is a laugh, but it might be too niche, and too out there for everyone to enjoy.

That list of questions will help you prune the crazy ideas into a list of feasible prom themes. But you’ll still have to choose between them and at this point you have three options:

1. Put it to a committee vote
2. Have the chairperson decide the theme
3. Put it to a vote in the year group having the prom

You could involve the whole school in the last option, but as only one (two at the most) year group will be attending the prom, it seems more fair to just let them vote.

Always bear in mind that the theme won’t please everybody, that’s impossible. If the choice of prom theme is just causing too much grief, arguments and tantrums (they do happen you know!) then you might want to choose a colour based theme instead. One school in Somerset went down this route and chose silver, blue and purple. It served the same purpose in terms of designing posters etc and made decorating the prom venue much easier.

So, there you have it, a quick guide to choosing a prom theme. I’m gathering up lots of prom theme ideas at the moment for prom themes part two, so it’s your turn now:

Tell us your favourite prom theme ideas, and we’ll feature them in the next prom theme post! You can tell us over Twitter, on our Facebook page or in the comments below. Have fun!

1. James Bond
Glamorous gowns and sharp dinner jackets go hand in hand with James Bond. Lots of style and class to carry into your designs, along with the casino theme – why not hire a mobile casino company to really make the theme come to life. These companies are used to putting on casinos at big events like weddings, and each guest can get their starter chips either as they arrive, or a voucher when they buy their ticket. No real money is involved, and you can pretend to be Bond or the glamorous spies all night if the fancy takes you!

2. Comic book superheroes
From Superman to Spiderman, so many people have a soft spot for the caped superheroes of the comic books, as all the recent superhero films have shown. Why not paint New York style city blocks at night to put around the venue walls, with occasional heroes hidden amongst them. There are bold, dramatic fonts associated with the comic books that look fantastic on poster and tickets too.

3. Ancient Egypt
Pyramids, hieroglyphics and ancient gods; what a feast for the art students! This theme has a great colour palette, and so much potential for great decorations. You could really go to town and create grand murals like the interiors of the ancient temples, or even make statues to frame the entrance. There is a tonne of inspiration just waiting to be tapped.

4. Pirates
Pirates! Need we say any more? Treasure chests, skull and cross bone flags, Johnny Depp, what’s not to love?!

But seriously, this can be a lot of fun to play with as a prom theme; you can create mini desert islands around the room with fake palm trees. Create a treasure hunt with clues given out during the evening and invest in a king’s ransom of chocolate coins to hide in mini treasure chests around the room.

5. Winter Wonderland
With the event taking pace at the height of summer, the impact of the winter wonderland prom theme can be so dramatic. Use cool blue lighting, make glittering snowflakes and use simple white sugar paper to create the impression of snow covered landscape on the walls. Making fake snowmen in June and July can be surreal and lots of fun, and having lots of ice cream and frosted drinks can bring it all together too.

6. Arabian Nights

7. Under the sea

8. Castles and knights

9. Tropical paradise

10. Space and celestial wonders

11. Wild West

12. Vampires (for all you Twilight and Dracula fans out there)

13. Vintage 1950’s

14. Mardi Gras /Carnival

15. Circus (hire jugglers and entertainers to bring this to life)

16. Hollywood Oscar night (go on, hire that red carpet, you know you want to!)

17. New York New York!

18. Chinese dragons

19. Romantic cities, e.g Paris or Rome – this prom theme can be taken into the catering really easily.

20. Fairy tales

Over to you; have you picked the theme for your school prom yet? Or have to heard of other themes that we can add to the list?