High school seniors Dakota Nelson and Rilee Kostick pose for pictures Thursday after Nelson’s surprise visit to Kostick’s home to ask her to prom. The ambitious adventure started at West Coast RV Recycling and Sales on Reynolds Avenue in Centralia. From there, Nelson led a short drive down the road to her home. Motorcycles, operated by friends and family, comprised his entourage as he surprised Kostick at about 9 p.m. Thursday.
“I’m not going to cry, I’m not going to cry” said Rilee Kostick (right) as her boyfriend of two years, Dakota Nelson, arrived outside of her house Thursday evening with a large “promposal” on a flatbed trailer and a handful of friends and family on motorcycles to escort them on their journey.
Centralia High School senior Rilee Kostick did not expect much of an invitation to prom from her boyfriend of two years, Dakota Nelson.
“I was expecting flowers in the mail or something smaller that meant something,” Kostick, 18, said. “But nothing even close to what he did. It was amazing.”
Nelson, 18, rode to his girlfriend’s house Thursday night on a friend’s truck pulling a trailer with giant wooden letters that spelled “PROM.” The letters were lit up with white Christmas lights and decorated with a disco ball.
Seven of Nelson’s friends rode motorcycles to escort the trailer to Kostick’s house.
“I have never really done anything to ask her to a dance, so I thought maybe for our last dance she will remember it for a long time,” Nelson said. “It was better than I planned.”
Kostick thought it was odd that her mother had her do chores Thursday night rather than homework. She was doing laundry when she heard multiple motorcycles driving by her house on Galvin Road.
“I heard one motorcycle and I heard another and another and I had laundry in my hand and I just dropped it,” Kostick said. “I was very shocked.”
Kostick told Nelson, “definitely yes,” and hopped in the truck. She rode with Nelson down Harrison Avenue, Tower Avenue and back to her house with the motorcycle escort.
Elaborate prom invitations, commonly called “promposals,” have become popular around the county. Kostick said she has seen friends set up flowers in a front yard or make large signs, but nothing compared to Nelson’s “promposal.”
“That was the first time he went all out,” Kostick said. “I asked him if he was going to ask me.
I was waiting and waiting and I didn’t know and all of a sudden it happened.”
Kostick said she was most impressed with Nelson taking the time to build the prom letters and set up the impromptu parade through town. Nelson, a full-time electrician who attends school online through Columbia Virtual Academy, worked on the invitation for nearly two weeks.
“It wasn't easy. The hardest part was trying to keep it from her,” Nelson said.
Denise Nelson, Dakota’s mother, said she is proud of her son for putting in the effort. She helped him paint the plywood letters and set up the display.
“He went above and beyond and out of his way and it is fantastic,” Denise Nelson said. “I guess we raised him well.”
The Great Gatsby-themed prom is Saturday from 8:30 p.m. to midnight at the Lewis and Clark Hotel in Centralia. Kostick said her last prom in high school was important to her, and now the invitation is something she will always remember.
“The only hint he gave me is you will never forget it,” Kostick said.
