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Deciding upon a theme or themes will make it easier to figure out your decorations. If you're going with one of the night themes, try a silver and black color scheme paired with either dark blue or purple, and plaster the walls and ceilings with cardboard cutout stars (make your own and spraypaint them silver and gold, then glitter 'em up). For the time-based themes, think nostalgic and go pastel. Whatever your choice, you'll want to make a big banner that clearly states the evening's theme. You can craft your banner on the computer, or go the old-fashioned route with paint and posterboard.

Now, I'm normally not much of a fan of balloons and streamers, but when it comes to prom decorating, you have to get into the mindset of what your seventeen-year-old-self thought of as festive. Use the good ol' balloons and streamers to reinforce your color scheme - they're cheap, they come in a rainbow of hues, and truth be told, they're kind of fun to put up. Cheap tulle, netting and silver lamé fabric will also come in handy. Use them as swags to decorate the walls, or toss them over furniture; finish it all off with giant ribbon bows for that ultra Klassy touch. And for extra brownie points, create that staple of cheesy prom décor: the balloon archway. For our bash, we made a faux arch by taping balloons to one of the doorways to form a nice semi-circle.

No prom is complete without the official prom portrait, so you'll want to scope out a little spot to set up a camera and tripod, plus backdrop. If you don't have white walls, throw up a big white sheet. You'll also need a vase, flowers (we found a big fake bouquet for $2 at our local Value Village), and a pedestal. Amazingly enough, my friend Kim actually owned this last item, but if you're lacking in the faux Grecian column department, you can always throw a cloth over a stool, or use the end of a waist-high bookcase. Basically, you just need to get the vase of flowers high enough that it'll show up in the pictures.

Last but not least, theme-out your bathroom with a nostalgic nod towards the ol' high school lavatory. No, there's no need to trash your bath; instead, create space for a graffiti wall. We bought a roll of Kraft paper and some washable markers (in case any inebriated folks decided to draw on our real walls), and papered our glass shower door. You can paper your wall if you like, although you may want to get some of that blue masking tape from the home improvement store so you don't have to worry about messing up the paint on your walls. My friend Nicole and I got the wall started with a few random love declarations as well as a bit of trash talk, then left the markers in an obvious spot for guests to discover on their own. As the night progressed, the wall filled up without a single word of encouragement from any of us who had been involved with creating it. (No wonder the bathroom line got so long!)

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