<p>D didn’t go to Senior Ball (as it’s called at her school) but for her senior year Homecoming, I gave her $100. The dress code for that is a little less formal, knee-length fancy I guess you’d call it. Anyway, she picked up a beautiful dress on clearance at Macy’s for $40. She also got stilletos and a clutch, and brought me back some change.</p>
<p>I live in MD. We have a David’s Bridal nearby where most of the girls go for prom dresses. I have spent around $150 for formal prom dresses there since I have three daughters. I bought an absolutely stunning formal gown for my youngest daughter online from Neiman Marcus and another above the knee dress that was mind boggling for $75 each. I found beaded satin slide shoes to match the shorter dress on eBay as well as ones that matched the formal gown. My daughter loved both dresses and wore one to her prom and one to her boyfriend’s prom. I was going to sell them (she’s in college now) but she protested saying she couldn’t part with them. I learned that excellent quality dresses do not have to cost a fortune.</p>
<p>Junior year, D tried on several dresses in the $200-$250 range (my limit) and felt most were overdone. Went to Macy’s and saw one on a half price rack and tried it on. She came out of the fitting room looking absolutely beautiful! Using my Macy’s coupon, it was $60.</p>
<p>Senior year, we found a dress at Jessica McClintock. They had very pretty dresses mostly in the $100-$200 range. The dress she chose was short and she was able to wear it later to a cousin’s wedding.</p>
<p>I’ve been reading this thread, and except for the girls who got theirs free, I think I win the prize for lowest price paid. When I was looking for a dress for my son’s wedding, we were in Dillards and there was a gorgeous midnight blue dress that looked black when it moved. D fell in love with it and asked if she could have that as a wedding dress and I said sure, anything you want can be a wedding dress. Fast forward a year, and we were in our local downtown thrift store, and there was that dress. We bought it (even tho she said she wasn’t going to her prom - she didn’t even have a boyfriend at that time. She tried it on and altho I knew it would need hemming and a tuck here and there, it was perfect. We took it home, saved it for a year. Meanwhile she got together with a boy she had known since middle school, and they went to the prom. Spend a whopping $10 on that dress. Got long black gloves on Ebay and used a black purse I had used for the wedding rehearsal dinner (thrift store too) and she was good to go. We watched the kids go in, and she looked very elegant, unlike some of the nightclub dresses that left nothing to the imagination!</p>
<p>*Do people really spend that kind of $$ on a dress a teen will wear for one night? **How can any of us think our children will make good financial decisions in life if we facilitate this kind of folly?<a href=“Ask%20me%20what%20I%20really%20think%20about%20this!”>/B</a> *</p>
<p>this thread is a continuation of that thread about “over the top birthday parties.” </p>
<p>And, sadly, yes, people do spend this kind of money…even those who can’t afford it do this. </p>
<p>not only are parents spending this kind of dough on prom dresses, but they are paying out additional hundreds for: fancy updos, professionally applied makeup, pricey shoes, pricey handbags, limos, …and even “after-the-prom” duds. </p>
<p>And, yes, it will interfere with these kids ability to make smart money decisions in the future.</p>
<p>* I think I win the prize for lowest price paid. When I was looking for a dress for my son’s wedding, we were in Dillards and there was a gorgeous midnight blue dress that looked black when it moved. D fell in love with it and asked if she could have that as a wedding dress and I said sure, anything you want can be a wedding dress. Fast forward a year, and we were in our local downtown thrift store, and there was that dress. We bought it (even tho she said she wasn’t going to her prom - she didn’t even have a boyfriend at that time. She tried it on and altho I knew it would need hemming and a tuck here and there, it was perfect. We took it home, saved it for a year. Meanwhile she got together with a boy she had known since middle school, and they went to the prom. Spend a whopping $10 on that dress.*</p>
<p>Amazing deals are out there. I regularly shop with two friends who have Ds. We always head to the fancy dress depts - even when there is no event coming right up - because that’s when the best deals are to be had. Last summer, I was able to buy a darling strapless number for my son’s GF for less than $50. She wore it to my dad’s 90th B-day party (which was an upscale affair) and she wore it again for a sorority ball in the fall.</p>
<p>Haha I spent $560 on my dress, I got it a week before prom because I had a dress that someone else picked up the same one. Most people here go all out, because we ONLY have homecoming and prom and it only senior prom. You can ask underclassmen bit someone must be a senior. Tickets are somewhere around $180 an that’s JUST the dance! Dinner not included</p>
<p>A friend just told me about [Rent</a> The Runway | Luxury designer dress rentals plus jewelry, purses and more](<a href=“http://www.renttherunway.com/]Rent”>http://www.renttherunway.com/). Why buy when you can rent? We rented gowns via H’s connections at the movie studios. D wore a 1954 hand made silk “goddess” gown that Deborah Kerr had worn. It was a $50 rental and by far the most spectacular dress at the prom. Now that she needs gowns for concert work, we have been haunting the local consignment shops. Plenty of socialites don’t want to wear the same thing twice and she has taken advantage of that. The most she has paid has been $500, but that was a couture gown that more than likely retailed for $9000.</p>
<p>I’m still stuck on the fact that kids have grandparents who don’t pass out at the prices…never mind the fact that the “grandparent” drove an hour with the grandchild…</p>
<p>Now I know why I had to save for my kids colleges since before they were born…</p>
<p>if my mother ever saw the prices of prom dresses, she would pass out on the spot…never mind the fact that she could NEVER be the one to pay for anything my kids do…</p>
<p>for last year’s prom (D was a junior) she didn’t decide to go until the last minute; Bloomingdales was having their Friends and Family sale; $300 dress was marked down to $38…yes, it was probably a mislabel…</p>
<p>I just did the prom dress thing with my daughter and it was excruciatingly painful, both to me and my wallet. My daughter is quite tall with an athletic build and swimmer’s shoulders, so not an easy fit. She is not very girly and has definite ideas on what she will and will not where. We ended up spending $400 on a long dress that is formal enough but she can definitely wear to less formal events. It is a Lilly Pulitzer and was the only dress we found that fit well and was not too fussy. I normally would not spend that much on a dress, especially since she has several semi-formal events coming up, but she missed prom last year, and homecoming for the past three years, due to out of town athletic events, so we splurged. Truth is, I would have paid twice as much to be done with the shopping! The good news is she won’t need new shoes, she has decided to wear a pair of dressy flat sandals.</p>
<p>The fashion around here D’s senior year was for understated gowns, with simple lines, which made it easy for people in every price range. Some girls bought on sale, or borrowed, some went designer or custom and spent well over the amount in the OP. Many bought their gowns at upscale department stores or boutiques, a switch from previous years when most girls went to the dedicated prom type places mentioned in the OP. The amount spent was the same, but the look was current and IMO more practical. Many girls did wear those gowns again.</p>
<p>We just did prom dress shopping, too–we found a dress my daughter loved in a boutique in the NoLita neighborhood in New York–some of the little stores there are quite reasonable. This dress was about $150. But she also needs a long dress for singing, so we went into another boutique and bought a beautiful long dress for $400. That was pricey, but the first one she tried on was $1900. No go on that.</p>
<p>Eh. If you can afford it, I don’t think this is a big deal. My prom dress was from Betsey Johnson and probably cost close to $200 in 1993. Since I wasn’t going to college, it was kind of my last hurrah. And damn, was it sharp – it would be equally hot at a 2011 prom.</p>
<p>To me, the question is, are you paying for a beautiful, quality dress that makes you look gorgeous, or are you spending to show off what you can afford and others can’t? The first is generally reasonable to me within your income bracket, and the second in very poor taste.</p>
<p>I’m a bigger bargain hunter than my mom, though. Now that I’m spending my own money, I’m cheap as dirt. I’ve got a black tie event coming up, and found a great dress marked down from $188 to $49. Now that’s what I’m talking about! :)</p>
<p>[NEW</a> Anthropologie Floreat Evening Enchantment Dress 2](<a href=“HugeDomains.com”>HugeDomains.com)</p>
<p>As I recall, D1 paid around $50 for her prom dress four years ago. Things have gotten a bit more expensive in the ensuing years and D2 just purchased hers for $125-150 (of which we paid half). In both cases my daughters picked out dresses that were at a major discount to their original price. I guess it come down to whether you can afford it and what your priorities are when it comes to paying $500 for a prom dress. It was interesting to see who paid for the most expensive prom dress, the stretch limo, the class trip to Virginia Beach, etc. during D1’s senior year. By and large it wasn’t the kids from the most well-to-do families in town but the kids from more modest means.</p>
<p>We just went shopping this past weekend. D loved, loved a dress that I asked her to try on. Different, elegant, gorgeous and of all wonders, seemed to fit her just right. What are the chances for that? She looked amazing in that dress! Sticker price was a bit higher than I wanted to spend - a shade over 300$. I had been thinking 100-200$. We then went to other stores looking - she tried on other dresses, in the 200$ range. Looked good - but none of them had the same WOW factor as the first dress. Talked to H - the incredibly frugal (almost cheap!) guy. His response was “why are you thinking twice about this? Go get it” . D was incredibly shocked - but I think we are going to get the original dress (assuming it is still there!) - she has hardly ever bought a dress and this is our gift to her, especially since this is a girl I can’t imagine falling in love with a dress. As Hanna said, we are paying for a gorgeous dress that she loves - not to make a point about the relative cost of the dress. I think the next dress we might be buying for her will be the wedding dress :)</p>
<p>I also think there is a distinction between a gift, a special event vs. routine overspending beyond one’s means. If this grandmother wanted to make a gift to her granddaughter, it’s not as if the girl can’t appreciate that it won’t necessarily be a routine thing.</p>
<p>Grandma was not buying the dress, but she did put out a lot of energy in the search…had to stand for two hours waiting just to get into the store. She said the parents were only paying a certain amount and the granddaughter had to pay the rest. </p>
<p>My grandmother bought me a dress for a dance, which my dad refused to buy because of the cost…it was $13. I felt like royalty. That was in 1960…wonder what the inflation rate would make that dress cost now.</p>
<p>Last year when D1 went to the prom I spent $90 on her dress plus another $20 for alterations. It was a beautiful strapless silk dress from Saks Fifth Avenue that we found at their outlet (Off 5th). The original tag on the dress was $630. D had a really cute pair of high heeled black strapy shoes she found at Marshall’s for $25. I let D have her hair done in an updo and get a mani/pedi since she saved me so much on the dress!</p>
<p>In our upscale beach community in SoCal it is not unusual for girls to spend $500 - $1,000 + for dance or prom dresses. My D2 will be a senior next year and will also have to find her dress on a budget or pay for part of it herself.</p>
<p>Not only have I heard of girls getting dresses that expensive, I’ll make you even more appalled – in our town, the <em>tradition</em> is that the senior girls wear white floor length gowns for graduation. If there’s anything that can’t be worn more than once, it’s a white floor length gown you buy when you’re 17/18. This is not a prom dress – it’s just for the graduation ceremony. These things go for about $300 a pop, plus $100 for alterations (plus of course, the shoes, hair, etc.) THEN there is also prom – which many go to junior year and senior year. </p>
<p>Can you say ka-ching?</p>
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<p>I think this is an important distinction. If you look at the money spent total on dances my parents probably spent a lot. Though we spent nowhere near as much as some say they did in this thread, I did have three homecoming dresses and a prom dress, and my mom did pay for my hair to be professionally done for all of the dances I attended. But the reason she did that was because I didn’t go to the vast majority of my dances, I never wore make up, got my hair cut once a year if that, and I was wearing the same clothes to school that I’d worn in middle school. I did not feel entitled to anything and didn’t even go to most of my dances, so when I did go it really was a special occasion and it was something my mom was willing to make cuts in other areas of the budget to accommodate. That kind of spending on me was in NO WAY the norm and it’s not as though I sat there with my hand out waiting for her to pay, nor have I ever done that-- these are the same parents that are having me pay the entirety of my college education costs by myself. I don’t think you can necessarily judge a family just based on school dances unless you know more of the story.</p>
<p>If you want to hear over the top, there were 12 homecomings at my high school in the 4 years that I attended, and some kids went to all 12 and had new dresses for each one-- our standard homecoming dress was a short, $40-$50 kind of dress. Prom was expected to be long and about twice as much money, but there was only one of those-- unless you attended with an upperclassmen.</p>
<p>There IS a practical reason for having so many homecomings, though. We had 5000+ students and three high schools on our campus so there’s no way we’d have all fit in one gym. So the way it works is you get a ticket for your homecoming and you can buy ONE guest ticket. If you want to go to one or both of the other two dances, you had to get someone to give you their guest ticket-- which was pretty easily and commonly done. If it didn’t work out that way we’d have to have three separate dances in order to fit everyone, and even though your SO might be in all your classes you’d still be unable to go to homecoming together if you’d been assigned a different “home school.” If you didn’t have the option to go to the other dances I don’t think many people would go, since many of their classmates wouldn’t be able to join them.</p>