To ask how much you're paying for DD's prom dress

[concernedforthefuture]

I have a younger DD (8) so have this to come . Colleagues were discussing prom dresses for their 16yr olds. I was staggered to hear that they (and most of their classmates) have all bought their dresses from a wedding shop... at a cost of around £250-£350 .

It's not just the dress though.. they're getting new shoes, accessories, nails, hairdressers, make-up artists (with trials too!) etc. I'm only in my late 30s but this seems so different to when I left school and feels like an absurd amount of money to spend on a 16 year old's night out. We don't live in an affluent area and these aren't wealthy families (to the best of my knowledge).

Is this the norm nationally? Had I best get saving

£540. We had an appointment at a prom dress / wedding dress shop and I was shocked at the prices. Was expecting around £200-£300 but the cheapest dress she tried on was £420. Most of her friends went to the same shop so would have spent similar. Feel a bit sick about it but it’s done and I’ll sell the dress next prom season and hopefully get some money back.

I think it is ridiculous that you felt pressurised into spending so much DarlingEm.

I had made it very clear early in year 11 that I wasn't going to spend more than £100 on an outfit, so DD didn't have any unrealistic expectations to start with.

It helped that she hates those kind of dresses anyway. We walked into one bridal shop that sold prom dresses, she looked around at all the long gowns and announced that she wouldn't be seen dead in any of them.