First prom for me and the Manor!
I am a teacher and class sponsor at a local 6A high school. This year was my class' year to plan prom. Having never done this before, I was very nervous. My class officers started looking for venues a year prior and fell in love with The Manor at Coffee Creek. Being a public school with not a lot of money, I was worried about the cost of the venue. Tammie was able to work with us on deposits so that we could get everything paid off after we had done some fundraising and started selling prom bids. In the beginning there was a little confusion on both sides as to what needed to happen for them to get paid (lots of forms and things like that), but we ended up working it out really well. It was a learning experience for both of us!
The actual prom went REALLY well! Tammie and Jody (sp?) did a really amazing job with taking our theme (masquerade) to a very classy level. We wanted to make sure it wasn't Mardi Gras masquerade so our colors were black, gold, and silver. This venue is gorgeous on its own and I was so pleased with how everything looked. The students really liked having multiple areas to sit and chat if they didn't want to dance. Most prom venues just have one big room so sitting and talking is not usually an option. Obviously, we had a very strong security and teacher presence because there are A LOT of nooks and crannies that the kids can sneak off to. However, we didn't seem to have a problem with that!
We had snacks and fruit-infused water. It was easy to refill the snacks because it was next to the bar where we stored the extras. The water, on the other hand, put us to work. We bought 18 gallons of water and that was not near enough so we had to keep filling up the jugs and transporting them from the sink to the water jars. In the future, I will definitely think about hiring a few servers to be on top of the water/drinks, taking out the trash, and refilling the snacks, etc.
We got really lucky with the weather! I was very worried about rain/storms since it is April in Oklahoma. Parking would have been difficult if it rained because the parking lot is a field. It worked perfectly with great weather though. Also, if it would have rained, we would have had to figure out a way to cover the walkway from the Manor to the dancing area so the students didn't get wet going from snacks to dancing.
All in all this was a great first prom experience for both of us, I hope! read more