For high school girls, Prom is the most important night of the year. It takes hard work to look great at the dance, though. Preparations begin months in advance and scheduling appointments can be cutthroat. When the day of Prom finally arrives, every girl spends her morning finalizing plans, jamming out to music and getting ready for a memorable dance.

1. Dress Shopping

Finding the perfect dress is much more difficult than it seems. You spend countless ours perusing the internet during math class until you finally say yes to the dress. Don’t even get us started on the alterations process.

2. Accessories Shopping

Once you’ve found the perfect dress, trying to match the ideal pair of heels to the cutest jewelry takes immense effort. You put forth a valiant effort not to procrastinate, yet somehow the full outfit never looks quite right until the night before.

3. Spray tan

The week of Prom, prepare yourself for nonstop discussion of spray tans. By Thursday, everyone is coming to school much tanner than she was the day before. Oh, the sacrifices girls make for beauty.

4. Nails

Prom is in two days; it’s mani-pedi time. Acrylics or gel? French or color? You have so many decisions to make and so many opportunities to ruin a fresh coat of paint. As long as the nails look good with the corsage, all is well.

5. Hair

After wasting hours on Pinterest, you’ve finally found the perfect up-do. You’re so glad you scheduled this appointment months in advance. Get your hairspray ready and enjoy someone else doing your hair for you.

6. Makeup

At this point, there is no time for mistakes. You turn your music up to maximum volume and jam out while getting your face all ready for the dance—only a couple hours away now and you can’t tell if this is excitement or stress.

7. Final Runway

Never have you ever taken so much care to put on an outfit. As soon as you’ve put the whole outfit together, including the fashionable accessories, it’s time for one fierce walk around your house. You feel like a model because you definitely look like one!

8. Prom

Finally, your date arrives and the parents go picture-crazy. You head off to the picture party and are astounded at how great everyone looks tonight. That entire day’s worth of getting ready for Prom really paid off and now it’s time to have fun at the dance.