Following in the Voice tradition, I will take the time to inform those who opted not to go to prom of Saturday evening’s events. Unless your forte is fashion critiquing some of the most heinous dresses ever made or observing over seven hundred students attempt to cram onto a dance floor with a surface area of a cardboard box, I promise you did not miss very much.

The location:

As countless limos, and “party buses” which were basically airport shuttles in disguise, pulled up to Dolce Hayes Mansion in San Jose, students felt very satisfied with the attractiveness of this year’s location. However, once inside, the Mansion did not compare to last year’s venue at City Hall in San Francisco.

Once we entered what appeared to be the lobby, students were channeled into separate dining rooms, three smaller ones on the lower floor and a main dining facility on the entry floor.

The dining room on the entry floor contained a dance floor, which had a backdrop curtain behind it. Many of us assumed the curtain would lift and behind it would be where the dancing would take place; however, that was not an accurate assumption since the dance floor was in fact right in front of us. Practically 10 feet by 12 feet in all its glory.

The theme, which was supposedly Havana Nights, was not at all exemplified. With the exception of the photo backdrop, which had a palm tree, decorations were limited, if not non-existent. The table decorations consisted of ten square chocolates with the message, “92% of Paly Students do not drink alcohol in a typical week.”

Dinnertime:

The sit down atmosphere of this year’s dinner was relaxing. As people arrived at their tables, traditional Caesar salad and bread rolls had already been served.

The regular plate contained a piece of chicken as well as mashed potatoes, a piece of broccoli and three prawns. As expected, the food was bland. The veggie option was the “chef’s choice,” which, surprisingly enough, basically consisted of a bunch of vegetables on a plate.

Drinks included cans of coke, diet coke and sprite as well as bottled water.

A fruit tart constituted dessert, and despite its rather delectable appearance, it was rather tasteless.

Dancing:

Well, I could go on forever about the inappropriately sized dance floor, but the silver lining was that eventually, some of the staff came up with the brilliant idea to move some of the tables out of the way to make room for the seven hundred dancers.

The deejay played good, modern music once everyone started to dance, but the soundtrack during dinner was another story — polka music, anyone?

Evening Attire:

This year’s prom, as always, featured an array of dresses. This female attire varied from casual summer dresses to over-the-top gowns decorated with rhinestones; a more popular color this year was sapphire blue.

Most gentlemen wore traditional tuxedos, with the exception of one fellow who, instead of a jacket, wore a ruby colored velvet robe with a velvet cap. White tuxedoes were also quite popular this year and there were of course the select few who chose to wear zoot suits.

There were, of course, people who seemed to belong in the fashion police category of US Weekly, but I’ll refrain from describing some of the truly unattractive outfits.

That’s all, folks:

Overall, prom did not meet the expectations of many students and most definitely did not live up to last year’s venue at City Hall.