Everything changed after Feb. 14. Once tasked with planning a festive night marking the end of her and her classmates’ high school careers, Cordover suddenly found herself walking a tightrope to plan an event that would strike a balance between memorializing those who were lost and allowing her fellow students to let loose after weeks spent mourning and planning walkouts to keep gun reform in the national spotlight.

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“It’s not the same anymore,” Cordover said. “With all the grief and healing we’ve been doing, it’s another way to take in the reality of everything. It’s not necessarily a celebration, but also a remembrance.”

You do everything in your power to make sure it’s the best it can be.

Many seniors were initially hesitant to attend prom — a moment of such lightness wasn’t even imaginable in the days after the shooting. But as the weeks passed, the senior class grew determined to keep their traditions intact.

“People were saying, ‘We didn’t let this ruin our year. We came back,’” said Demitri Hoth, 18, a senior who was friends with Schentrup as well as senior Nicholas Dworet and junior Helena Ramsay, who were also killed. “It’ll be different, obviously,” Hoth said a couple weeks before the event, “and it won’t be the thing it was supposed to be, but it doesn’t mean we won’t get to go.”

A prom goodie bag for the students. Josh Ritchie / for NBC News

Senior Allyson Adak, 18, agreed. Her friend from band, Alex Schachter, 14, had died in the shooting, and she planned to attend prom with a group of band friends. She hoped the energy of the evening would lift her spirits.

“You have this vision for a perfect senior year, and when you don’t get it, you do everything in your power to make sure it’s the best it can be,” Adak said.

Still, for the students, memories of Feb. 14 are never far from the surface.

When the fire alarm blared that day, Saripalli initially figured a culinary class had burned a batch of brownies.

It wasn’t until she saw SWAT teams and Broward Sheriff’s officers race by, and the texts began to come through, that she realized Stoneman Douglas had a shooter on campus.

Immediately, Saripalli texted her friends, asking where they were and if they were OK.

“The only person who wasn’t responding was Carmen Schentrup,” Saripalli said.

When she learned of her best friend’s death hours later, she couldn’t stop crying.

Prom was the last thing on her mind — and weeks later, when other students started talking about it, Saripalli was unsure if she should attend, since Schentrup, who had been so eager to go, couldn’t.

“In our entire friend group, she was the one that was most excited about this and the fact that we’re going and she really wanted to go is just hard,” Saripalli said.

'The best prom ever'

The February shooting hit close to home for Arielle Nielsen, a makeup artist who lives just minutes from Stoneman Douglas.

In the days that followed, she wanted to find a way to support the students, so she reached out to the school to see if she could donate her services as a makeup artist. When she learned that nearly 600 seniors were expected to attend prom, Nielsen tapped a network of industry professionals and asked for help.

What started as an idea for a handful of students quickly evolved into the Beautifully Strong Douglas Prom Makeover Event, where more than 100 volunteers worked to give about 150 students, including Saripalli and Cordover, a bit of glamour Saturday ahead of the dance. A photobooth and makeup gift bags added to the pre-prom fun.