To say the price of prom dresses is absolutely ridiculous?!!

Buying online is great i n theory and we tried it - shein, coast, ebay etc and none of them fitted fabric was cheap and fit was poor. They looked lovely online but the proportions were all wrong and for £50 I suppose you aren't expecting anything decent. However my DD is a size 16 so maybe ok if slim with small boobs.

After over 15 orders and returns I relented and we went to a prom dress shop. OMG the experience was unreal and all the dresses that said a 16 were a 16 top and bottom and all of the dresses had bras built in so no need to get a separate bra - we booked an appointment and had a consultant with us for an hour who measured my dd first and then chose the dresses that he thought would suit her shape and I thought I knew his game- he would say that the most expensive was the best fit - in fact he didn't his advice was the cheapest of all the dresses fitted her the best. We then had the dress altered by the in house alteration specialist to fit her. OK it was far more than we wanted to pay but it was worth it because it took us 2 hrs on a saturday afternoon and before that it had taken months of trying on , trying to alter and lots of tears as nothing fitted. Also the shop we used will not sell the same dress to another girl from the same school.

Because the dress was more expensive than we originally wanted we drew the line at limo, or professional hair and make up. I did her make up, a hair dresser friend did her hair , she borrowed some shoes off my niece and she arrived in her dads normal black car.

The following year when it was my sons turn we bought a pair of shoes for £20 and a jacket off shein for £20!!

My daughter's dress was under £100 online. We also looked at Moonsoon and House of Fraser irl, both had options around £100-£130.

Simple but inexpensive sandals and bag from Amazon, Local salon curled and put her hair up with a vintage clip for £25.

No fancy arrivals at her venue, deliberate choice by the school, thank goodness!

In contrast her cousin chose to buy her dress from a company offering a full 'Say Yes To The Dress' type experience, with family and friends in attendance. Cost her parents several hundred pounds, plus £150 alterations and collected weeks later, like a wedding dress. She looked lovely, but no lovelier than her peers in chainstore, charity or vintage dresses.

Have a look at shein, they do all types, I'm.sure you'd find something she'd love.
Maybe an idea, you order a few different ones,(don't tell her), and have them hanging up and surprise her. Let her pick one and easy to return the rest.
You could make a afternoon of it, and so each other's make up, hair etc.
Hope she has a lovely time.
But yes 250 is to expensive for 11 year old.

Avoid the bridal shops or the specialist prom Shops! They look overly blingy -and chavvy- anyway.
Plenty of other options.

Dd had her prom in 2021 and they have to be tested on the day of the prom - so no one knew whether it was going ahead, or whether they'dbe allowed in. I think this focused the kids on the fact that the dress is not really the be all and end all..

Why on earth are primary schools buying into this Prom crap! It’s ridiculous and totally demeans the Prom when they actually leave school! I’m expecting you to say next they have a graduation ffs!

I haven’t read through the whole thread,
so I’m not sure if this has been suggested, but have you considered hiring one?

We bought my daughter’s from JJs House online £120 and the quality was surprisingly good. I paid for a few alterations locally and make up and nails on the day (she did her own hair) which brought the total to around £250 all in - still a lot!

Although we could afford to go to the upmarket stores, I refuse to as it’s an obscene amount of money to spend at that age.

You really don’t need to spend that much. A Google search for “formal dresses” brings up some gorgeous ones for £50.

My daughters was from quiz online £50 in a sale ,excellent website with videos of the model wearing the dress ,it was exactly the same colour and style when it arrived and i was very pleased with the quality.
She is very good with her hair and makeup and did that herself , i paid for a spray tan .
She looked stunning and i also think a lot nicer than some of the obviously expensive yet tacky 'official' prom dresses .
She knew i would never spend a ridiculous amount on a dress worn for a few hours and possibly never again ,and she thought the same.
It is absolute madness to me to do so, we still had a lovely time out together buying shoes and jewellery etc , its a big load of fuss though !

We bought one off Vinted (had it altered) DD practiced her own makeup but is getting her hair done. Shoes were from an inexpensive shop, about 30. Total spend was 120.
Her school don't allow all the limos etc. They take them to the venue by coach from school.
Some people are ridiculous and I think it's as much about the parents showing off as anything else.

We spent £350 on DD2s. Plus an extra £90 to get it altered 🙈. We said we’d treat her as due to covid she didn’t get to do all the school trips abroad her sister did. Tbh it was an amazing dress. Probably the nicest one there.

dd1s was £120. It was a bridesmaids dress from wed2be (I think that’s what it was called). She got the whole trying on experience without spending loads of money. It was a lovely dress and she has worn it for formal occasions at uni, where as DD2s could only be worn for a prom or ball, so better value really. you definitely don’t have to spend mega bucks. Dd1 had a lot more spent on her in other ways.

I used to get my “ball” and “black tie” dresses from Debenhams. I know they haven’t got the high street shops anymore but I believe still are online? May be worth a peep.

Dd got hers from jjs house and wore her platform doc boots underneath and was dropped off by her friends dad. The dress landed on the floor of her room at the end of the night and hasn't been worn since. Note to self stick it on vinted. I got into wire a panic listening to the other mothers then realised they were doing the whole shebang for themselves more than their daughters.

Oh yeah this is what they do. Once a dress has been sold they won't sell the same dress or another dress in THE SAME COLOUR to anyone else in that school. It's bloody madness.

@BLUEcups just aswell if you type "evening dress" into search bar there is alot of pretty dresses in sale.. she could always sit down and have a look with you, their amazingly pretty just for 1 day/night of celebration 😊

We have two local charities where I live that have special prom dress/outfit sales. All for under £30 and they make it a bit of an event with nibbles and nosecco and full length mirrors. I'll definitely be taking DD when its her turn.

Worth checking out if you have similar locally.

@BLUEcups www.ever-pretty.co.uk/products/elegant-sequin-spaghetti-strap-a-line-evening-dress-ee01952?currency=GBP&variant=45746721947835&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google+Shopping&stkn=62b9577fe44d&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItOmAi5PBiwMVs6VQBh3i8wgNEAQYBSABEgIvTfD_BwE

Vinted?
Are prom dresses a specific thing? How do they differ to other dresses? Bridesmaid dresses are a lot cheaper now than they were when I got married.

I burst out laughing when a local shop started advertising prom dresses last week. Their selling point is that they will not sell the same dress to anyone else at the same school 🙃 We definitely didn't take things this seriously when I was a teenager!

For starters it's Y11, not age 11, and also, the prom idea isn't strictly American. It's a longstanding Irish tradition.

Second hand
Or look if there's anywhere local that hire out dresses (I did this once for a uni ball)
Bridal sample sales might have bridesmaid dresses that would do

Also just remember she doesn't have to have a fancy hair do or limo or all that nonsense!

Charity shop. My daughters was £20 and it couldn't have fitted better if it had been made to measure

You'll be relieved to hear that proms are an Irish tradition going back decades, so no existential fear is needed.

They are called debutante balls there, shortened to 'debs'. Entire communities come out to wish the school leavers a fab evening and to admire the style. Local papers publish pages of photos of the debutantes, boys and girls alike. Major national newspapers carry debs style and trends sections.

Ebay
Vinted

I’m selling a full length gold one on Vinted, type in prom dresses and filter for size/colour.

I have to say, all of Year 11 last year turned up in full on prom dresses, without exception. My current form tell me they’ve mostly bought theirs already!

My dd found a vintage 90's dress on vinted for £18. We need to get it fitted with a seamstress but that won't cost too much. She was very against going to the usual shops and that isn't her style at all. There are lots of other options you know.