Pineapple Bouquet

This isn’t a paper craft, and I’m a bit late posting this but…

One of the ~~stresses~~ highlights of senior year was Prom, and I was baffled at how crazy the process had become. Back in my day (boy do I sound old!!!), I bought a pretty simple (inexpensive) gown at one of the teen clothing stores in the mall, did my hair and make-up as I did every day, and drove over with my date in the family car. We had been dating already so it was just assumed that we’d go together, but if we hadn’t been, he just would have asked. Today, the dresses are often over-the-top fancy, expensive, and in many cases, inappropriate for high school teens (in my opinion). The girls post pictures of their dresses online so no one will buy the same one. Hair, make-up and nails are professionally done, and limos or party buses are the preferred mode of transportation.

One of the things that amuses me is the “Promposal” where the asking has become quite a production! My boys needed to come up with something creative for their dates, and because my daughter was going with a guy who was not in her senior class, she needed to do the promposing as well. Friends of their dates helped them with their ideas, orchestrated the surprises, and were there to help with the actual promposals also. Like I said – a production! Anyway, here’s what they did…

Keith enlisted the help of his English teacher and several classmates. The teacher pretended to become really annoyed with the class saying that she was tired of them not reading the assigned material and then gave them a pop quiz. One of the co-conspirators asked Keith’s date a question, and when Keith’s date whispered a response, the teacher freaked out on her and called her out into the hall where she pretended to reprimand her for talking during a quiz. Meanwhile, back in the classroom, several students held up signs spelling P-R-O-M-? while Keith stood by with flowers in hand. When the teacher and his date returned from the hall, Keith officially promposed. I probably would have had a heart attack if I had gotten called into the hall and would not have made it back to be asked!

Kelly’s date was really into robotics, was in the robotics club with her brothers at their school, and had recently competed in the VEX Robotics World Championship in Kentucky. Creating “alliances” with other teams is a big part of the competition so Kelly created a sign asking her date to be on her “alliance for prom” and used her brothers’ team’s robot to deliver the message. Her robot driving skills were not the greatest (that’s being kind!) which made for a very comical promposal.

Kevin was told by his date’s friends that she really liked pineapples and that he needed to include that in his promposal. I created the pineapple bouquet (above) for him to present to her while he told her that they would look FINE-apple together at prom. Oh brother!! 🙂

I can’t wait to see what all these kids come up with for their wedding proposals!!

Now back to the pineapple bouquet… I started with a pre-cored pineapple I purchased at my local grocery store, sliced it, and then used a Wilton cookie cutter to create the flowers. I scooped cantaloupe balls for the flower centers and used grapes to hold the flower in place on the wooden skewers. Additional grapes and strawberries were stuck on skewers as well. The container is a handle-less mug from Michaels that was meant to be painted. (I left it white.) I cut a small orange in half and placed it (flat side down) in the bottom of the mug so I had something in which to stick the skewers of fruit. I left a bit of stick exposed above each flower so there was something to grab when removing the flowers to eat.

I have to say I was a bit frustrated because I had made a trial bouquet the week before which came out beautifully. The pineapple sliced cleanly, and the flowers were perfect. When it came time to recreate it for the real thing, I bought another pineapple. However, once I started slicing it at home, the pineapple slices kept cracking. So I left the sticky mess on my counter and went back to the store in search of a better pineapple. I checked all the containers carefully and selected one with no visible cracking. However, when I started slicing the new one at home again, it was even worse than the first one! I was running out of time and knew there was only so much “reject” pineapple we could eat so I decided to work with what I had. (Of course I hadn’t photographed the better one before we ate it!) I should point out that the sample one I had originally made was wrapped in the fridge for 3 days before we ate it, and it was delicious so if I were to do this again, I’d not wait until hours before I needed it in case I had to repurchase or redo any of it. Anyway, Kevin’s date really seemed to like it, so I guess it was ok.