Duct tape prom dress pays off

Bekah Mecham has many great memories of her junior prom, especially after learning her dress won second place in a national contest.

“I heard about it my sophomore year and I was like, no way. I am not that person,” she said.
                
With pressure growing to earn scholarship money, she kept thinking about the “Stuck at Prom” contest, intended for those brave enough to make and wear duct tape attire to prom.

There was a big difference between making the dress and actually wearing it on prom night.

“I had to have my friends help me in the bathroom and get into it,” Mecham said. “It is very sweaty and stiff and uncomfortable.”

Burns and Mecham were among the top 10 finalists in the contest and finished second, earning a $5,000 college scholarship for each of them.

“I thought it would just be another form of art,” Mecham said. “And maybe I could get money for it.”

She talked her friend Wyatt Burns into the project and together they spent 175 hours creating a very unique dress and tux that didn’t cost a fortune.

“It was definitely under $75. We thought it would be a lot more, but we ended up using under 15 rolls of duct tape,” she said. “It was cheaper than most prom dresses.”