Prom advice

[Stompythedinosaur]

Hi, I wondered whether anyone could help me out with planning around proms? I'm aware it's a bit early yet, but I am looking at our finances for the year and it would be really helpful to get an idea of what other parents paid for for the prom, and if possible, what sort of cost they paid.

We're in the north-east, with one dd in year 11. Can definitely afford some things to make her prom special, but not infinite finances, obviously.

I'm thinking the dress is the most important bit? Plus hair? Do dds get their make up and nails done, or do their own? And, does everyone get fancy transport or is that only a few people?

I'd be really grateful for any help from parents who've done this!

There was no fancy transport at ours. Parents just dropped groups of kids off in their own cars.

They all looked lovely but I couldn’t tell you whose dress was £15 from Vinted and whose was £hundreds. Neither could I tell you who did their own hair or who had a hairdresser do it for them.

I would start looking early for second hand dresses, shoes and bags then if you are going to pay for your DD’s hair and nails you’ve not splurged on the rest.

I think it is very school dependent. My DD had a dress (£280) and had her hair done with normal hairdresser but did her own nails and make up. A few people came in hired cars but most got lifts from parents.

Another local school was much more full on with the expectation that you had a fancy car and the full works with friends spending in excess of £500 on hairs/nails and dresses for their DDs.

Yeh it really depends. Also depends on the student tbh.

DD had dresses that we got online for less than £100 for both year 11 and year 13 proms. Shoes we got from New Look IIRC certainly somewhere pretty cheap. She didn't do nails as that's not her style, and for year 11 she didn't have her hair done, but for year 13 (she had very long hair) she had a kind of half up-do done at my hairdressers. Plenty did not tho.

No fancy transport here. Not sure if others did. Not needed tho and a total waste of ££ IMO.

A colleague of mine paid about £800 for her DD's year 11 prom dress which made me gasp. No need for that at all if money is tight (or even if not). Plenty on Vinted. DD's sixth form one was from ASOS and was lovely.

Real mix at DDs prom. DD really wanted a certain style red dress. We looked at the prom dress shops but neither me or DD could see why they were priced between £300-£600. Just couldn’t justify paying it at all. In the end I ordered 3 or 4 dresses from SHEIN and she chose one that was around £50 and beautiful. Could not tell the cheap dresses apart from the expensive ones on the day.

Oxfam sometimes have Zara returns - DD's dress was £25. I took off the slightly frayed straps and added some of those decorative chain bra straps you can get.

Thank you everyone, this is really useful to know! We will definitely look at cheaper options for dresses.

I just don't want dd to be the one who's missing out, so it's great to know that not everyone is spending hundreds and arriving in a limo!

No fancy cars at my Dads that I saw. In the end DD did her own makeup and nails and I did her hair. Her dress was expensive but she loved it so much and nothing we found even touched it. She chose to save any remaining budget to have her hair highlighted properly. Was a good choice!

My DD had a £400 dress but spent nothing on hair, makeup and nails. Car was her friend's relative's convertible. For year 13 she wore a £10 dress off vinted and walked!

Both of mine had dresses for about £30. They wanted simple rather than big statement dresses. One of mine wore her shoes in the house for about a month and managed to be comfortable enough to keep them on all night so that’s my top tip.

Nobody at our proms had professional hair or make up as far as I know.

Round here (Cheshire) it's a mix of High Street / Vinted quite simple black tie dresses and a few bigger "gypsy wedding / taffeta larger" styles. I couldn't tell out of the more flammable styles which were super expensive and which were TK Maxx or Shein to be honest.

Having hair up professionally is common. Most girls do their own make up. People just get lifts with parents or a taxi. Pre parties / gatherings at peoples homes are a thing.

A lot of my DD’s friends bought dresses from charity shops/Vinted. Virtually nobody they knew spent more than £100 on a dress. My one DD did buy her dress from Liberty’s - at around £70! Shoes tend to be from New Look. Clutches are New Look, or in my DDs case, Peacocks and Monsoon (used by 3 DD across Year 11 and Year 13 Proms). Some had hair done at hairdressers - I don’t know the cost, as mine chose not to do this. Make up by friends, perfume nicked from me.

Nobody had a limo to Prom in their school. The norm seems to be going to a friend’s house in the same town as the Prom (wide catchment), and hobbling in heels walking from there.

Teen me (um I'm 36) would not have wanted anything I couldn't envisage wearing again in the next year or so.

Buy second hand or from normal shops not specialist prom shops, hair and makeup, well for dd2’s leavers ball we all did our own (parents came too) but for the year 9 prom I took them to the Boots 7 counter which was £20 but you got a £20 voucher for me to spend! Nails I did for them, normal varnish though but stick ones work if they don’t have decent nails, proper extensions are not something i would fund. I did their hair.

chichi London is where I bought the dresses for the ball for my DD’s, dd1 still has them (both) as she’s still the same size, dd2 bought a new dress recently from monsoon. Mine is from bravissimo (clothing discontinued) all under £100

DD's dress was £230. She picked something that is very wearable for other events rather than being very prom dress. She's tall so secondhand was tricky. Shoes were £20 and a pashmina from Shein for £5.

Did her own hair and makeup at a friend's house with a group, then they got an uber to the venue.

Pretty much all of them spent under £300 on dresses. None of them did professional hair and make-up.

Ticket was £35 iirc.