How much did your 16yo spend on their prom dress?

[SpongebobNoPants]

I have no idea how much these dresses cost but we’ve been asked to pay £500 towards SD’s prom outfit which seems really excessive?
Her dress alone is £500

When DP expressed some surprise (and announce to be honest) at the cost he was told everyone spends that much?
Are we just old and out of the loop or is this excessive?

£45 ten years ago, made to measure from China. £500 is ridiculous.

£50 on dress. Did own hair and make-up. Shared limo was about £20 plus ticket but the whole thing was probably around £100.

That was for GCSE prom, then it's the A level ball, then it's uni balls.... Dress got recycled a few times!

Why not do a Carrie Johnson and hire a dress?

DNiece has a £100 budget and anything she wants after that she pays for out of her pocket money.

I have a boy and the Prom is at school in July.
However, worried might be cancelled or worse, he gets isolated as loads of stuff going on at school beforehand.
Consequently, his suit will be bought at the last minute!
He will be gutted if isolated for Prom.
500 pounds on a dress now? Is the Prom soon?
If not, hold fire....

This thread makes me sad as I always think of the Class of 2020 kids - a whole year group who missed out on their prom and still have unworn dresses knocking around.

You are being extremely dramatic. They missed a dance, they didn't go down on the Titanic.

Dd wore a bin liner, shaved her head and went in a pair of her Dads shoes, she also wore a sandwich board with adverts for the local garage on who sponsored her so in fact we made a profit

We spent £300 , but the shop we took her she tried a dress on that was £495 .

£500 is a crazy amount, and she definitely won't be the only one wearing a dress that costs significantly less. You don't have to spend £££ to look nice and have lovely time. That's an important life lesson, much more valuable in the long-term than the momentary fun of splashing out on an expensive dress.

Her mother should be ashamed for getting her daughter's hopes up without discussing it beforehand, knowing she was unable to pay for most of it herself.

@Hoppinggreen 😂😂😂😂

£60 dress £20 shoes Nails £20 £100

Hair doing it herself, no spray tan or transport,

Son £90 suit £25 shirt £15 tie £60 shoes. £190

Boys more expensive than the girls here

Dd in 2017 was £160 for dress
£50 for shoes
£30 clutch
£30 hair
£70 for gel nails/toes, spraytan and make up package
This was fairly standard in her year though some got tailor made dresses closer to £500

In 2019 my DD spent £60 on dress from ASOS, shoes plus bag cost about the same again and £25 having her hair done.

She did her own makeup and nails.
So our spend £150 and she paid for drink and taxis herself.

£500 for a dress is ridiculous.

She was 18 but £50 from ASOS. Heels from local charity shop. Did her own hair and make-up. Most of her friends spent similar amounts or less on Ebay. It was a really nice occasion where parents were invited (black tie) for drinks and canapés before the party started.

£32 on a dress.
£5 on pouffy petticoat from Ebay.
She wore a pair of my shoes
Her hair was very short and she wore a fancy feather hairband that was mine.
She doesn't wear make up or nails.
She looked beautiful, like Audrey Hepburn.

SpeakingFranglais you must be the oldest mum on the boards! Typo of the day, for sure. 😂

£50 for the dress (reduced in the sale) and £40 for alterations.
That's this year. So still no guarantee it's going ahead..

My DD and a few of her friends went prom dress shopping in the January sales (when all the Xmas party dresses were cheap). They each spent about £50. A couple of her other friends spent £300+ on made to measure dresses that had to be ordered and paid for months in advance (I thought at the time that I didn't order my wedding dress that far in advance).

The prom was supposed to be June last year, so none of them got to wear the dresses, so I was relieved we'd not spent more. Her A level prom outfit is sorted now though:)

In answer to OP, £700 sounds well OTT.

Its so easy to steer them away from boutiques and towards cheaper alternatives.

Mine was £290 in 2009. I had a weekend job then so my parents paid £200 and said if I wanted one that cost more I had to pay for that myself so I paid the £90 out my wages

There is a shop called Dress2Party in Liverpool, popular for prom dresses as they stock Sherri Hill, Jovani etc. My niece’s dress was £550 in 2016. We had a budget initially of £300, but quickly realised this was not going to be enough. Shops like Dress2Party only let one style of dress be sold per prom, they keep a list, part of what you are paying for.

We're prom dress shopping atm and looking at spending between £100-150 on one from 'JJs House' online.

She'll do her own make up, not sure about hair, wants her nails done and will no doubt need shoes and a bag. I'll probably go halves with her on most of it (her Dad will no doubt plead poverty as per usual) but she's got two part time jobs and knows if she wants something outrageously OTT she'll have to fund it herself.

Very easy to spend that much but you don’t need to. Just tell them it should of been discussed beforehand and you’re only willing to give £x amount. What would you be happy with. I’m expecting it to be £500 all in with my daughter.

Boutique in liverpool, bet its cricket thats where the football wags shop

£500 all in doesn’t sound too bad... £250 per parent seems fair.
But the dress alone plus all the extras 😩