To ask how much you have/will spend on a prom dress?

[Frouby]

Dds prom is this year. Shes a good kid, works hard and I want to reward her for the effort she will no doubt put in for GCSEs.

Her prom is in July and she has started talking about her prom this summer. Says girls are spending between £300-£500 on dresses, plus hair, make up, nails, shoes, limo etc etc etc.

I didn't spend that much on my fucking wedding dress.

She has also said that they are all shopping for and buying them now ready for July.

I was thinking April/May, mooch round the shopping centre, party frock from Topshop or New Look, some shoes and some new make up,hair put up by normal hair dresser. Drop her off and pick her up myself.

When did it turn into a big £1000 do for 16 year olds? She won't even actually even be quite 16! What if you can't afford it? We live in Yorkshire, in a town massively struggling as it is. How can working class people already struggling afford this? Especially if they have more than 1 dc? In particular dds?

Is dd having my pants down on this or do people really spend 1k on prom night?

I spent just over £100 on dd's outfit last year, plus at least the same again on a pair of DMs. It was money well spent because she has worn every part of her outfit several times since then - the DMs even more. She and her friends did each other's makeup and the parents lift-shared.

Similar for ds a few years earlier, though he wanted dress shoes which were much cheaper than DMs. In the long run dd's outfit was cheaper, as she has had much more use out of it (ds grew!). Both of them looked fab and felt fab.

Dd said that many girls had bought their outfits in post-Xmas sales - but several changed their minds and bought a different outfit a few months later.

There was the whole range - from lift-sharing people like us, to parents with cool cars dressed up with lights or decals, to hired stretch limos with chauffeurs. And one guy and his girlfriend, who arrived in shiny new wheelbarrows pushed by their big brothers

Hi OP. If you request to join Pageant dress sell/swap U.K. on fb and put in the questions 'mumsnet' I will approve you.

Plenty of dresses on there for cheap (some are pricey) that have been used in beauty pageants in all sizes and suitable for different ages.

I hope this helps.

We spent £85 on dress and £30 on having makeup done.
The first girls choosing there dresses spent huge amounts.
As it got closer to the time the cheaper the dresses became and some got away with £15-£25 and looked fab and no different.
It changed when some one called everyone out as to why they were spending the equivalent of a holiday on a dress - she was very popular so it needed someone like that to put a reality check in.

They organise limos for end of Y6 parties here!!
What a load of shite, round here they have water fights in the park.

I have a younger sibling and hers is around £500
The shops we've been in have for example 1 or 2 of a particular size in a particular color. So if not got now then chances are you'll dip out.

My girls are now in their early 20s so their proms were a few years ago.

Both dresses were bought online for under £50. Shoes about £20 for one, £8 in a sale for the other. Dresses for after-prom were about £20 for the older one and I think the younger one borrowed something from the older one.

No spray tans. They did their own nails and make up. One did her own hair. Can't remember how much I spent on the other one's - perhaps £30?

No expenditure on cars. I drove one, a friend's parent drove the other (normal cars, nothing posh).

I live in Surrey and it was an independent school.

She will do own make up.
Hair is booked think thats 25

Then shoes and bag
Jewelry I'm buying but she likes a shop called lovisa? But like Claires but more dressy.?

I also didn't realise you were supposed to sort their dresses out now until another mum showed me a pic of her daughter's prom dress (£300) and casually said all her friends had got theirs as well... They went to a prom dress shop. The advantage of that is there are lots to try on (or were in December!) and they note down what school you're at so no one gets a duplicate.
However, I think that's quite expensive, especially when you've got twins! I ordered dresses for my two online for about £90 each; DD2 loves her dress but we've been back and forth with DD1's trying different options but none of them are right so I think we will have to go to an actual shop. Preferably a High St shop though and not the prom dress shop! Fortunately neither DD is fussed about where it comes from, and their friends who have got dresses already (not all of them, by any means) have got them from a variety of places, from charity shop to bridal shop, so there's no peer pressure really.
Plus they also need shoes, bags, hair, make-up etc to be sourced from somewhere - no one's mentioned limos, so hopefully we can avoid that - plus £50 for the prom ticket itself. It's crazy really but hard to duck out completely.

Amazon (ever pretty brand) are worth checking out - DD's evening dresses are nearly all from there (she plays in orchestras and sings semi pro classical so has plenty)

We gave DD £200 and her Dad gave her £100.

She worked and topped up the rest which was fine by me.

In the end her dress was £400.
I lent her shoes.
I think she paid about another £40 for a hair and make artist - a group clubbed together.

The dress is beautiful and will be useful in the future.

We got DD's dress from an online retailer, can't remember the name, but it was between £50 and £100. Hair and make up she did herself. Fairly cheap shoes (£30?) and I think she borrowed an evening bag of mine. Apparently some of the other girls had professional hair and makeup but I think that's OTT. Some kind parent drove them to the event, no limos. This was leavers' ball in year 13, London. She looked lovely FWIW!

But yes check ebay etc. lots of her friends sold their dresses

My DD borrowed a dress from a friend. Spent nothing on anything else.
Why not borrow or buy 2nd hand?
I can't think of any reason for worrying about it this early, anyway.

My DD has hers this year too. I've been dreading it for a couple of years due to cost, but she announced recently that she wants to wear a dress of mine. It cost £20 and I only wore it once more then ten years ago. She's adamant it's just what she wants. Needless to say I'm relieved. Happy to pay out for accessories/hair etc as I was expecting it to all cost several hundreds.

I paid £595 then DD was excluded from school Thank god the shop restocked and refunded me. If I could do it again I would buy from eBay or Facebook lots of marketplace groups just selling prom dresses.

Why not borrow or buy 2nd hand?

I agree in principle, we do buy a lot second hand but DD saw a dress she liked and she worked to be able to afford it. I quite liked that. She has already worn it again. We have a cruise planned for this summer and she will wear it then. She can also use it at uni- I told her we would not be paying for another posh frock.

As a teacher though there were many students with cheaper dresses than my DDs and a few with more expensive dresses. Nobody really cares tbh.

Fontill road in London has looooads of prom dress shops! Got mine 8 years ago for £70.

What you describe is fairly typical. Describes my oldest daughter's experience pretty much exactly. My second won't entertain of any that . Not even sure she'll attend .

I wouldn't even consider spending over £100, that's absolutely ridiculous. Then again, I couldn't afford to. My wedding dress cost £150 and it was beautiful. I had a lovely day and I looked stunning.

I'm amazed that so many people can afford to spend hundreds of pounds on a prom dress for a 16 yr old. How times have changed.

My daughters was £400 and we bought it two weeks ago. It doesn’t help the girls all tend to buy from Red Carpet Ready, but she enjoyed the ‘say yes to the dress experience’ (so did I) she is paying for her hair and shoes and doing her own makeup.

It was a treat and a dress we can shorten to create a really nice wearable knee length dress for later years.

£90 river island suit and £12 at the barbers. He did want a charcoal face mask before though

And £10 for his date's corsage

Dd1 - prom dress £40 in sale
2016 Shoes - about £25 New Look
Bag - borrowed
Hair/make up/nails done by me/her
Transport - limo £40 pp

DD2
2018 - prom dress £50 eBay
Shoes - £100 (but birthday gift and

worn many, many times since!)
Bag - borrowed
Hair/make up/nails/tan me/her
Transport - friends parent - free

DD1
2018 - 6th form prom dress - £35 AXParis
Shoes - borrowed DD2's!
Bag - about £10
Hair/make up/nails done by her
Hotel room - £40 (premier inn)
Transport - drove herself

Some of their friends/peers spent £500+ on dresses and thousands on shoes, accessories, hairdressers etc but I think they all looked equally beautiful no matter how much they spent.

In fact, DD1 and friends were looking back at prom pictures over Christmas while they were all home from uni and DD is the only one in her group who still likes both her prom dresses.
I think because they are simple and classic rather than the gem stone encrusted gypsy-wedding types that a lot of her friends had.
She has even worn her £35 6th form prom dress to a few balls and formals at university.

DD2 has just started having a look for 6th form prom dresses and the one she currently loves is £60, which I'm happy to pay.

There is a charity that loans prom dresses
www.promally.co.uk

and presumably accepts donations of dresses no longer needed
I remember hearing a radio interview with the founder a couple of years ago.