Studio 5 Party, Holiday & Ideas Contributor Alisa Bangerter shares a few creative ideas.
Be creative when asking (or answering) a date to a school dance! It makes the invitation fun and memorable.
Be Creative
It is fun to ask a date in an unusual way. Remember to consider the interests of the person being asked (sports, music, hobbies, etc.) and possibly incorporate that as part of your invitation. Also remember that seasons or holidays (fall, Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day, etc.) lend themselves to some really fun and creative ideas. Remember to keep things in good taste and not dangerous in any way.
Use Food
Consider asking in a way that uses a food item (candy bars, soda, cereal, bananas, etc.). The possibilities are endless. Simply take a walk through a grocery store and look for food items with words or by themselves could be used as part of an invitation. And a note to girls… teenage boys tend to love anything that involves food or treats!
Think Simple
Sometimes a simple inexpensive invitation is just as fun as an expensive or very complicated and involved one. There are many simple and low cost items that can be used as part of a creative invitation. There are also many easy things that can be done that have a big and fun impact. Remember sometimes less can be more!
Ideas:
• Coordinate with a family member to place an alarm clock under the recipients bed set to go off in the middle of the night (or other time). Place an invitation on the clock that says: “It’s Homecoming time! Will you take the time to go with me?”
• Create a short video clip asking your date to homecoming and post it on the internet on You Tube. Give the person a link to the site.
• Create a simple GPS course that must be followed to find the invitation.
• Drop off a bag of flour with the recipients name on it. About a half hour later, return with a single flower in a vase with the attached note: “Oops! I must have dropped off the wrong “flower!” Would you be my date for the dance?”
• Leave a combination lock on the front porch. Leave a note that they must “unlock” the mystery of who is asking them to the dance. Have a list of names of possible people asking and a combination by each of their names. The combination that unlocks the lock is the person asking. A fun twist on this would be to place the lock on a box of candy that could be eaten once the lock was open.
• Place a small child plastic pool or other larger container on the porch filled with sand or sawdust. Place coins, wrapped candies, plastic beads, and other trinkets and “treasures” throughout. Place a small plastic shovel in the sand with a note attached to the handle. Have the note state something like “I would dig it if you would come to the dance with me.” The person must then dig through everything to find the invite. Have the invite rolled up in one of the items they are digging for or actually place on the bottom of the pool.
• Wrap the invitation in the center of a ball of yarn or string. As you wrap the yarn, place small notes and candies in the ball. In the center of the ball place a note that says: “Sorry to string you along! Would you go to the dance with me?”
• Take photographs around town of letters from businesses, road or other signs that will spell out the invitation or name of the person asking. Give the stack of photos to the person saying: “We would have a picture perfect time at the dance – will you be my date?”
• Decorate a room or car with everything blue (balloons, crepe paper, confetti, signs, candy, etc.). Leave a note saying: “I’d be really blue if you can’t go to the dance with me.”
• Leave a bunch of rubber ducks floating in a bucket, small pool or in their bathtub, and a note that says: “Of all the duckies in the lake you’re the one I want to take.” You could also do this with frogs saying: “Of all the froggies in the lake you’re the prince I want to take.”
• Go to www.mymms.com and have custom printed candies made as an invitation.
• Coordinate with teachers at school or friends that so during each class period the person being asked is given a word to the invitation. By the end of the day the recipient should have all the words to solve who is asking.
• Give a package of Hostess Ding Dongs and a note that says: “I would be a Ding Dong if I did not ask you to the dance.
• Leave a bunch (or several bunches) of bananas on the porch with a note that says: “I would go bananas if you would go to the dance with me.” A fun idea might be to pull each banana apart and cover the porch with individual bananas and have a stuffed monkey holding the note.
• Leave some cans of Crush soda saying: “I would be crushed if you can’t go to the dance with me.”
• Write the names of multiple people who could be asking someone to the dance on a ball, t-shirt, pillowcase, etc. Leave instructions for the recipient to wash the items and the name that is left is the person asking. Make sure to write the person asking in permanent marker and the rest with washable markers.
• Leave a Healthy Choice food item on the porch with a note saying: “It would be a healthy choice if you would go to the dance with me!”
• Wrap a car with plastic wrap and leave a note that says: You can’t turn your key unless you go to the dance with me!”
• Coordinate with a teacher to place an invitation on an overhead projector.
• Coordinate with a teacher to add a last question on a test for the recipient that says: “(name) wants to go to the dance with you. Will you go?”
• Have a police officer pull over the person being asked or call them to the police station and give them the invitation to the dance.
• Ask the school principal to call the person down to his/her office and have them present them with the invite.
• Fill a bucket with seashells (with sand) and place a note on it that says: “Shell we go to the dance?”
• For someone who loves to hunt, use camouflage and hunter orange along with something hunting related (a duck decoy, photo of a deer, etc.) and state: I am “hunting” for a date to Homecoming…would you go with me?” or something similar.
• Place a laminated invite in the middle of a bucket of water and freeze. Leave it on the porch with the note inside saying: “Now that we’ve broken the ice. Would you go to the dance with me?” This would be fun with notes in individual ice cubes (fill a bucket full) or multiple frozen buckets of ice to break open.
• Leave a broom on the porch with a note: “You would sweep me off of my feet if you would go to the dance with me!”
• Place tiny plastic army men all over the porch leaving a note that says: “Not even an ARMY could stop me from asking you to the dance!”
• Fill the porch or room with wrapped packages that must be opened. Leave a note that says: “I am present- ing you with an invitation to the dance!” The wrapped packages can all be empty if you want except the one with the name of the person inviting. (This is fun to do around Christmastime.)
• Leave a takeout box with candy and leave a note: “Would you be my take-out to the dance?”
• Leave a bag of sugar saying: “Hey sugar… it would be sweet if you would go to the dance with me!”
• Leave a cd of dance music with a note such as: “Practice your dance moves because I am inviting you to go to homecoming with me!”
• Use window paint to write the invitation on a bedroom window or other window (home, car, work, etc.). Make sure to get permission first.
• Use sidewalk paint to paint an invitation on a sidewalk or driveway.
• Coordinate with parents to have them leave a note where the person would unexpectedly find it (medicine cabinet, box of cereal, on the hairdryer, on a page in a piano book, etc).
• Place an invite in a stuffed animal or go to a Build a Bear type store to create one.
• If someone loves music, leave a bunch of Symphony candy bars with a note saying: “It would be music to my ears if you would accept my date to the dance.”
• If you are inviting someone who likes to play sports, write the invite on a ball (soccer, basketball, football, etc.) or give a container of smaller balls (golf, tennis, baseballs, etc.) with words on them. Write: “We would have a BALL if you would go to the dance with me!”
• Hang a piñata on the porch of the person being asked. Fill with candy and letters or words that must be put together to form the invite.
• Create a tape recording (or cd disk) after the Mission Impossible theme that is the invitation. Have it state something like: “Should you choose to accept this mission to the (type of dance) it will be with (name) on (date). You will be picked up in (type of vehicle) by (describe the person asking them) wearing (what they will be wearing to the dance) and will be taken to ( place where dance is held). Your date will feel like they will self-destruct if you do not reply by (date).”
• Have a group of friends stand and serenade the person you are asking under their bedroom window (get parents permission first). Make up creative lyrics to a song that double as the invite.
• Place cans of Mountain Dew soda in a Styrofoam cooler and write: “It would be Cool if you would Dew me the favor and go tot the dance with me.” Write each letter of your name on the bottom of a can for the recipient to put together to solve who is asking.
• Place a large stack of newspapers (or spread them out) on the porch with a note that says: “Just spreading good news! You are being asked to the dance!” The person then must go through the papers to find the name of the person asking. It could be typed inside or letters circled.
• Send the person on a scavenger hunt from place to place or to person to person. A fun twist on this would be to have the clues be photos of places.
• Since fall is coming – why not leave a bunch of cornstalks on the porch with a note that says: “It would be corny if I didn’t ask you to the dance!”
• A fun Halloween dance invite would be to cover the entire front door, car, bedroom, etc. with spider webbing and plastic spiders. Leave a note that says: “It would be Spooktacular if you would go to the dance with me!”
• For a Halloween dance, fill a cauldron with a tiny bit of dry ice. Have a person dressed like a witch and deliver the cauldron with a message inside.
• For a Christmas dance, leave a tree on the porch with simple ball ornaments all over it with the invite written on the ornaments. Check out thrift stores for inexpensive decorations.
VIEWER IDEAS
A few Studio 5 viewers shared with us their creative dance ideas!
Star Light Star Bright
When I was in high school, I asked a guy out to the homecoming dance by baking him star-shaped cookies frosted with yellow frosting. I put a poem with it that said: “Star light star bright, I wish you may I wish you might go to the dance with me that night.”
My mom always told me “a way to a guys heart is through his stomach.”
Well, the guy said yes! Pass this idea on to others.
-Tama
A Sparkling Night
I used the following to ask the guys to dances in college. It was an idea given from a friend (who was a guy).
I don’t need “kisses”.
I don’t need “hugs”.
Just a “sparkling” night
With my favorite bud!
For the kisses and hugs, give Hershey’s Kisses & Hugs. For “sparkling”, use sparkling cider. And if you wanted them to wear a flower or something, you can give a flower that is still in the bud stage (real or silk).
-Meagan
Football Game Poster
My son asked a girl at the first football game of the year. We had the cheerleaders make a big huge poster that said:
Kira
Homecoming?
#59
It was the sign that the football team runs through after half time. It was awesome. #59 is his football number. It was huge and so darn cute!
-Kari
Here is a link to a segment I did in 2006. It is filled with many additional creative ideas:
http://studio5.ksl.com/index.php?sid=508882&nid=13
The possibilities are endless – especially with holiday themes. Have fun and be creative!
Best view i have ever seen !