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?

Haven't read the thread so don't know if anyone has mentioned prom ally yet, it's a lady in Wales who has a massive collection of gowns and rents than out for proms. It was set up so girls who can't afford to buy a dress can still go to their prom. I've sent a few dresses I'll never wear again her way.

Whats wrong with bringing up kids to be individuals and not follow the expensively dressed crowds of sheep

I don't think the OP wants to spend a lot of money, hence the thread.

And kids are not sheep for wanting to fit in with their friends and look nice, though I agree that you don't have to spend hundreds of pounds to do so.

I strongly advise against waiting until April / May to start looking at dresses in case she chooses something that needs altering.

We spent about £300 on the dress, £60 on the limo, hair was £35 I think and make-up about the same. Didn't spend too much on shoes as they were hidden by the dress.

It makes me very cross. I heard on the radio about "prom poverty". FFS!!!!!!! It reminds me of when I heard some plonker from a charity saying that not being able to afford things was worse for poor people "because they like expensive brands".

Dd's dress: £40 from Next sale (they do other brands on website). Shoes: £10 Debenhams. Hair: £0. Nails: £0. Transport: £0. Ticket: £30. She got many compliments. (Unless people were just being polite!)

If you look on Gumtree/ebay (you can filter for local sales) there are masses of prom dresses that idiots spent hundreds on and are now selling for a tenth of the cost.

DD’s dress was £85 from ChiChi London. Shoes from New Look for £25. Handbag from River Island £25.

She did her own hair and makeup, and after she was dumped from going in a limo with “friends”, DH’s boss drove her there in his Range Rover. She wasn’t expecting to enjoy it, but stayed right until the end and had a fantastic time. You don’t need to spend a fortune, it’s ridiculous, the amounts some people spent.

DD and all of her friends hired their dresses from a local dress hire place-don't know where you are but apparently ppl come for miles to this one. Might be worth a google to see if any rental places near you?

I think the whole idea of prom is simply ghastly.
Schools in the UK shouldn''t have imported what was well known to encourage unaffordable and extravagant excess and exclusion in the U.S.

I've taught in places where girls went without sanpro and undergarments .Those families and many others simply have no cash for proms.
Bring back six form discos

It seems to me to be the people with less money that are spending more money on this bollocks.

The dresses that my DD’s friends are getting are around £300 and they are bloody awful to boot.

I’m feeling between a rock and a hard place now as I don’t want my dd who is wonderful and hard-working to stand out like a sore thumb because she’s not wearing a bejewelled £300 monstrosity dress but on the other hand I’m not willing to leap on the bandwagon either.

The whole thing has taken me completely by surprise. I honestly thought they would go off to town and buy dresses from high street shops. Not make appointments at bedazzled prom dress establishments.

habibihabibi, prom is an Irish tradition, though known as a debutantes ball in Ireland, shortened to 'debs'.

As with all special occasions, what you spend and how much trouble you put yourself to is entirely up to you. Your feelings about the event are your own responsibility. There is lots of unfairness in life, and lots of stuff is not affordable. The response to that problem is not to do away with special events but to teach teens resilience.

A prom is a good exercise in understanding and accepting the reality of their finances, always important for teens.

I was quite prepared to spend a hundred or so on a nice prom dress for my DD, however she found her own on Amazon for 30 quid. It'll need altering a bit, but I have a local lady who's reasonable. DD doesn't do much make up, certainly not a fake tan, and has never worn heels. The plan is for sparkly Converse trainers. Oh and she spotted a matching handbag in a charity shop for 3 quid. The venue is round the corner so we will give her a lift. She's very much an individual.

Another vote for TKMax. They have loads of amazing deals on evening dresses. I bought my daughter a beautiful beaded evening dress in the House of Fraser sale (online) and paid £92. I think it was around £250 originally. Shoes don't need to be expensive and most girls are pretty expert at make up. I was lucky, my daughter is a tomboy and it was a miracle she wore the dress. No interest in posh hair and make up. She wore white fake converse trainers with ribbons for laces!

Let her save and tell her you'll match whatever she saves. If she wants it all then she will have to contribute

The girls at my DDs school are going a bit mad and spending 100s on dresses - all quite bridesmaidy and lots of pastels (they have a Instagram page where the are supposed to post a picture of their dress to avoid duplication ), but she enjoys being a bit different and has gone for a black dress from Coast for around 50 (and hasn’t posted a picture).

My friend's DD has just bought this Oasis dress which I think is lovely and a bargain. Surely, there'll be loads of choice in the sales currently?

Saying that, another friend is taking her DD to a Birmingham prom dress shop a few hours' drive away, which from their website, seem to stock bridesmaid style type dresses at a few hundred quid! Very Dynasty and Dallas esqe.

Surely good old Coast will do

About £200 as she'd never wear it again

DD bought her own prom dress with savings. This was a couple of years ago.

Am going to take her to a couple of the more reasonable prom dress shops and ket her try some on. I think it's that she wants to do more than anything I think.

She's actually quite conservative in her taste for clothes. I really can't see her going for some of the all out blingy numbers. She knows budget is £100, anything over she puts towards herself. Will spend a bit on shoes and hair and accessories and anything above that she funds.

I don't want to be a killjoy. And no matter how silly we think prom is, it's obviously important to her. But at the same time we have to set a budget and stick to it. Am also considering asking her if she wants to book a slot with a personal shopper at either H o F or Debenhams. They will have a much better idea of what will suit her style and age than me. And I think she would enjoy that as well. And am sure the bridal shop I used to alter and clean my wedding dress do prom dresses as well and they were very reasonable (and helpful when I decided a week before the wedding I wanted it altering 😂😂😂).

Sadly I think an online purchase won't cut it as she is a fussy bugger and wants to try on and do the whole shopping experience which I can understand.

But it will all be done in a couple of months as we need to get some savings sorted before we go spending again. We had ds birthday in December, then a week abroad, then Christmas and neither me or dh worked after the 6th and being self employed it always takes a while to replenish the bank accounts afterwards. Plus DH needs a new (to him anyway) work car so need to sort that out.

We may just get a bargain if we go later anyway.

I set my daughter a limit of £100 for the dress. Also ended up buying from Quiz from Debenhams - for less than that. I feel much more than that is a bit silly really.

I would have preferred her to hire but she wasn't interested.

Look in TKMaxx,I bought DD a headed dress from there for £20. This is a little I to this years www.tkmaxx.com/uk/en/search?q=Prom%20dresses&sort=publishedDate-desc&facets=stockLevelStatus:inStock&page=0

Lipsy are always rather good for dresses. Have a look on Next website and you should find them in there ☺️

Just had a look myself and they've got some gorgeous ones!!

DD's dress was £500
Hair,shoes bag about 200
Did own make up
No limo ,venue made that a bit irrelevant
£100 or so for hotel room for staying over after prom
It's a one off and I can afford it
It's the sort of thing I work for

It's whatever you can afford and also a very personal choice.

I hate it when people say that parents are mad for spending x - if they can afford it and they want to then carry on.

My daughters dress was £295, by the time we added in accessories, hair, make up, nails it was probably £450.