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?

£579 for the dress
All in around £1000 with hair, make up shoes etc
She had a face like a slapped arse in the pre prom pictures, moaned that the actual prom was boring and had a great time at the after prom in her £20.00 quiz dress

Lessons have been learned

We probably could afford it but it would mean that money wouldnt go on other things which imo are more important for the family. It is nonsense. I would look on Ebay. When I was at university I used to wear a different dress to each of the many balls we had because I got them from ebay. People do not tend to wear ball gowns alot so they're usually in great condition. My friends bought a super expensive dress for the first one or two then wore the same ones continually. I just re-ebayed mine afterwards or they got recycled by a sister. Hair wise you can learn a style and do it for her same with nails but if she really wants the full experience why not look for mobile beautician as they tend to be cheaper especially those who havent long been working in the role so are building portfolios and experience. Tbh if you were looking at 1k she would be better off spending around 100 on an ebay dress and cheaper beauty then saving 900 for uni

Unless you are lucky enough to be very rich, spending hundreds of pounds on a prom dress plus all the accessories, make up, spray tans and luxury transport that go with it is absolutely crazy. It only causes stress and one upmanship. Prom was never even a big thing in the UK until about 10 years or so ago. How did it get so big, so quickly?

My daughter looked absolutely gorgeous in a £50 dress from Lipsy. Her friends spent similar money and looked equally lovely spending similar money. No need to spend a fortune just for one night out!

Where I live the local school (350 pupils ) also has a facility to take 50 borders.
Last summer 4 of us decided to go for a drink at our local hotel because the outside area has a lovely view.
When we got there we realised a school prom was going on due the the amount of young people dressed up in fabulous dresses.
Luckily we managed to find somewhere a little out of the way to have our drinks. On a table nearby was a lady by herself drinking a bottle of wine. She asked us to look after it whilst she popped to the loo.
On her return we got chatting to her and she said her daughter was attending the prom and suffers anxiety so she had come to help her (take to hairdressers, make up etc) she had flown in from Dubai !

Spent £130 on DDS dress last year,sold on eBay for £90.Sandals £12,my clutch bag,own makeup and hair.
If you don't want to hire a stupid car the trick is to arrive at the beginning and enjoy seeing everything that others come in(the digger with a sofa in the bucket being my personal favourite).
Finding something not too 'old',was the hardest thing and persuading DD not the wear her Doc martens!

Oh and be prepared to talk your DD out if getting another dress for the after oarty-I couldn't believe this was a thing but it is This is where DD wore her docs,the party was in a barn and they she walked the 5miles home at dawn with a large group of friends.

It’s not a thing.

My DD didn't have anything in Year 11 but there was a Leavers' Dinner in Year 13. I don't know whether it is because they are just that little bit older but it seems fairly restrained compared to the typical Year 11 Prom if the photos are anything to go by. My DD spent about £50 on an evening dress in the John Lewis sale, wore some shoes she already had and did her own hair and make up. Her then boyfriend gave her and a couple of friends a lift there (he went to a different school so wasn't going) and they got a taxi home. One or two girls did the whole "ballgown and tiara" thing, but the majority were in cocktail dresses or fairly simple floor length evening dresses. They all looked very nice but I wouldn't say many had spent more than £100.

I paid £595 then DD was excluded from school

Six hundred quid for a child's outfit?? Utter madness.

My son's the girlfriend had the works, hair, tan, nails, make up and 2x dresses. She spent the evening looking constipated as nothing appeared quite right for her, though she looked fabulous to everyone else.

Too much too young

My DD spent £25 on a nice dress. She and her friends are too street for fake tan, nails, hair and those dresses. Thankfully. For their prom at 18 they all wore trainers as they were going clubbing in town later. But thats all a bit London.

we paid about £70 for my stepdaughter dress from quiz, it was a floor length sequin gown with spaghetti straps and a cross back, fitted and it was stunning. Her mum paid for her to have her make up done (which she hated and removed as soon as she got home and re-did herself!) and she did her own hair. Her school provided a coach from the school to the venue so no transport needed

DD's school was very much in the spend a bloody fortune camp. Prom at posh hotel, hundreds on dresses, limos, hair and makeup done and all the rest.

DD and her 3 best mates decided that they couldn't be arsed with it all and asked for festival tickets instead. Saved a fortune.

My prom dress was around £150 (my mum had bought me it for a different occasion so it was its second outing) and it was really ridiculously beautiful and expensive-looking, the nicest thing I've ever found. My parents still have it nearly ten years later and I'm praying my boobs go down enough when I've finished bf to wear it again. Otherwise my baby dd will be wearing it to her prom

There's no need to spend a lot. Some people have more money than sense. 16 yr or 18 yr olds generally don't need a lot of expensive tailoring! And you can pick up wonderful clothes on-line nowadays if you put in the effort. There is so much choice and it doesn't have to be pricey. I had to buy my daughter an outfit for a special occasion recently (not a prom; more of a "costume" for a school cultural event) which required a long skirt and a long sleeved blouse (the sort with bell sleeves) and it all came to about £70 on Asos and I thought that was expensive! It really suited her though and and she has already worn the blouse since too.

My DD4 in the US spent $50 on her dress, which she found in the clearance rack of our local Macy's. I seem to remember we went dress shopping in late winter/early spring for a May event. Maybe in February? The other dress that fit her and looked nice was $129 and that was the limit of what she was able to spend. She spent her own money saved from babysitting.
I contributed to the cost of the prom ticket ($50 from each of us).
I also bought her, online, a set of see through bra straps ($5.99) because I was sure her strapless bra wouldn't last the evening. She thanked me the next day.
Sandals came from Goodwill (charity shop) - cost $4.99.
Evening bag came from Burlington (discount place like TKMaxx only weirder and wilder) - cost $9.99.

She did her own makeup and hair and also did her friends' makeup and hair. A bunch of them hired a limo that fit probably 18 - cost was $30 each for a return trip. It was discounted because one friend had a connection in the local Bulgarian community which has the limo business cornered.

A friend of DD's rented her dress. It looked fab on her. Another friend got hers at Macy's about an hour before we arrived, again from the clearance rack and I seem to remember she paid about $30 for it.

DD3 also found her dress in Macy's and it cost something like $65, with all the rest of the costs paid by DD herself too. She had a better job than babysitting.

Spending a fortune on spray tans, nails, professional hair and pricey shoes and prom dress is considered a bit tacky where we are.

Plus there is also a formal graduation ceremony that requires a formal dress or suit under the cap and gown.

Why oh why is bratty behaviour like 'pulling a massive face' a the suggestion of buying from ebay and being called a 'cheapskate' being tolerated, OP? At that point I would have said 'You're on your own, pay for it your bloody self.' I think these situations are great teaching moments, regarding sensible spending, resourcefulness and getting value for money without compromising on the end result.

But the opportunity is being wasted when parents just throw money at their teens and then they expect them to be reasonably adjusted young adults that can cope in the real world a few years later?

Dd has her prom this year, she got advice from one of her friends with an older sister who had their prom a few years ago, and found a nice dress online for only £20 to be honest I would have spent more and was impressed she got a bargain. They are all getting the dresses now as OP's dd said btw. Dd does want her nails done but she found a beauty student who does this quite cheaply again she booked it in now, just in case it gets booked out by the prom.

I got my dd dress in December and it cost £125 in the sales

Definitely not more than £100 on dress and will allow a manicure £15-£20 and hair possibly. But it will be a simple style/do as opposed to something £££!

I find all this ludicrous and am very pleased about having sensible dc! Best dress a dd has for semi formal was £30 on sale. Loads of compliments!

We live in a wealthy area and this is shocking to me.

When I had a leavers ball I spent £30 on my dress (in 2008) aged 18. We did chip in for limo though!

DD is a way off but a mum friend got her eldest’s dress in a sale at House of Fraser last year for £70. We send our girls to private school and she lives in a 7 figure house so not short of a bob, just don’t think it’s the done thing here!

I'd say £150 as a maximum, and would hope we could get something much cheaper.

DD prom a couple of years ago = dress from the sale rack in H & M - £20, bag Primark £8 shoes also Primark £10.

Hair and make-up herself, dropped off and picked up by one of her friends. No-one else knew what we spent, and there was no way I was forking out hundreds. DS has prom this year - he will get some kind of suit from H&M or similar I expect.

They are 15/16 years old, you are in charge. Spend what YOU want.

I spent £50 on my prom dress. Got it from Quiz. Think I wore a pair of shoes I already had in my cupboard. Did my hair myself, didn't wear make up. Had a great night!

I spent £195 on my 'prom dress' which I paid for myself by saving all my earnings from my Saturday job. It was from Coast and it was beautiful. I was so proud to wear it and felt amazing. I would never have expected my mum to buy my prom dress because I knew she couldn't afford it.