Payton McLain, a 22-year-old University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior, had long dreamed of attending a formal, winter ball — the kind with women in flowing dresses and elbow-length gloves and men in black ties.
She imagined the kind of 19th-century dances like those romanticized in movies such as “Pride and Prejudice” and “Little Women.”
“I had a dream of throwing a winter ball since high school,” McLain, of Franklin, Tennessee, said in an interview.
Then, last summer, McLain explained her idea to some of her girlfriends, who also swooned at the thought of coaxing their guy friends to dress up and learn a few ballroom dance basics.
Soon, McLain and her friends Rebekah Womack and Reagan Wilson, of Chattanooga, and Baylor Dublin, of Franklin, had formed a committee to try to make it happen.