This is the season. The time when girls’ minds are flooded with images of cerulean, satin, and which orchid goes the best with which lapel. This is also the time when your brain is in ultimate panic mode, but before you can start having a mental breakdown about how much your tux is going to cost, you have to find a date to the hectic occasion known as prom.

Asking a girl to prom has become an increasingly hard task. Your fellow men have become obsessed with out-doing one another from flowers, to cakes, to cakes with flowers on them. Though it is great for guys to get creative, sometimes lines can be crossed.

Don’t break your budget. I know there’s a big wow factor if the word “PROM?” appears written across the sky, but if the invite is more expensive than the actual destination, it’s pretty much a letdown. Plus, if you spend a bunch, the girl might feel like a burden.. Also you have put her in an awkward position if she a) can’t go, b) doesn’t want to go, or c) already has a date.

Don’t ask her in front of her friends. First of all, you will probably end up embarrassing yourself if she says no, and second she might say no just because you put her on the spot. If you really like her, make it more personal and ask her when you’re not in front of the whole school at some sort of event.

Also, try to make sure that she doesn’t have a date already, because if she does and you look dumb when she rejects you, it’s not my fault.

Don’t waste time deciding what you’re going to do. She might be asked by the time you write up that ridiculous scavenger hunt (not saying that scavenger hunts are completely out of the question).