The dresses and suits have been picked out and altered, the “promposals” made and answered. Wiscasset High School’s all-school prom is on for May 16.

When Ridge Barnes arrives at Water’s Edge Banquet & Function Facility in Edgecomb on Saturday night, possibly on his motorcycle, the student council president, fellow seniors and the school’s underclassmen will be carrying on a tradition that has seen change in recent decades. Deb Pooler’s prom in 1971 was in the school gym. Students arrived as couples.

“You went with a date or you didn’t go,” she said. “I remember feeling very grown up and going with a boy who was a lot of fun.”

Between Pooler’s high school days and her job now as the school’s technology coordinator, some aspects of prom have changed. Some students attend with a group instead of, or in addition to, a date.

But other aspects have held. Dresses are decided well in advance. Senior Erika Auger said she got hers in Massachusetts where there is a greater selection of dresses than in Maine.

If a boy and girl attend prom together, the boy typically pays for dinner and the prom tickets, according to students. With the dresses, shoes, makeup and nails, girls interviewed figured they have the greater expense — especially in senior year when they are more likely to get their hair done for prom.

Boys’ tuxedo rentals are running between $75 and $145; one girl’s dress cost $500, another got a $130 dress on sale for $30.

Ticket sales and fundraising by the junior class will go toward costs for a deejay, decorations and food at this year’s prom, which teachers will chaperone, Pooler said. Healthy Lincoln County’s prom safety checklist for parents has been posted on Wiscasset High’s website and on the school’s Facebook page. In addition, the school’s social worker Lisa Henry would be meeting with students during the week leading up to prom to review tips on a safe prom season, Principal Cheri Towle said.

“The goal is for all students to have a great time at prom and to be safe,” Towle said in an email response to questions from the Wiscasset Newspaper.

Pre-prom dinner destinations vary. According to Pooler and students, some go to McDonald’s. Last year, several went to Brunswick’s Fat Boy Drive In. This year, Little Village Bistro, newly opened down Gardiner Road from the high school, is in some students’ plans.

One promposal appeared in the school library, in the form of balloons and a poster that read: “I don’t know how to dance but I was hoping you would teach me at Prom?” Another was short but sweet, literally: 28 cookies spelled out “PROM” on a table in the computer lab.

Molly Carlson has two children attending this year’s prom. Daughter Maeve Carlson, a senior with college ahead, saved the expense of buying a prom dress by borrowing one; her brother, sophomore Aidan Carlson, got his first suit. Hopefully he can wear it to his future proms, too, his mother said. She hemmed the pants.

The two teens planned to get ready at other people’s houses on prom night.

“They are really enjoying this camaraderie with their friends,” their mother said.

Seniors were mixed on whether their final prom means more to them than their previous ones. “I think it means more. It’s (our) last one,” Alecia Faulkingham said. Barnes said he went all out in his junior year when he got a limo. “I had my big prom last year. I just thought I’d make it special. So I’m pretty good with that.”

Freshmen interviewed were excited about their first prom. Corey Campbell, Vanessa Dunn and Lindsey Gordon said it will be a bigger deal than the prom-like, “morp” (prom spelled backward) they had as seventh and eighth graders at Bath Middle School. The dresses will be longer for prom, the girls said.

What makes an old-school tradition like prom stay relevant through the generations? Pooler cited the meaning behind the tradition.

“Prom is something that all kids want, to feel grown up, to feel special and to have something in common with their peers to look forward to and plan for,” she said. “Prom will probably be around as long as kids have that desire to be part of something special.

“Every now and then there are little twists added by kids, such as the promposals, but frankly the prom remains basically the same, a rite of passage every kid looks forward to.”