The high school’s annual prom is coming up quickly on April 20. It is a night for friends and dates to get together and have fun. It’s a night to go out, get all dressed up, dance, and just celebrate high school and the upcoming summer. Students usually look forward to this night for a while. They prepare months in advance by buying things and “promposing” to their friends or dates. A “promposal” is normally an extravagant way to ask someone to prom. By making a sign, buying flowers, or other material things. This is either done in the comfort of your home or in front of a group of people. However, this single night of having fun comes with all kinds of expenses that you may not think about when you first decide to go. The first costs usually being the “promposal” which will vary in price depending on how you ask someone.
The process of picking out a dress or a suit, getting shoes, jewelry, nails, and hair are all involved in attending prom. Although this process can be fun, it can also be expensive. At a prom store dresses often begin around $300, but they are usually even more. To most people, that is a lot of money for a dress to only wear one time. The dress is also just the first thing to buy. After that has been bought you may need it altered, which could cost around $50 if not more. Once the dress is altered shoes need to be bought, which are usually minimum $20. It feels as though the expenses are never ending because even after all of that jewelry usually has to be bought. If you decide to buy jewelry this could either be the cheapest or most expensive part of the night, depending on where it is bought. For those tracking costs, we are at $370 plus jewelry.
Jewelry, shoes, and dresses are all things people automatically think about when shopping for prom, however; there are some things that people may not think about that still cost money. Buying the ticket, for example, that is another $60 spent on the night. Dates normally like to match and get flower corsages for each other, this is another $20. Although none of these things are absolutely necessary a lot of people like to get their hair, nails and even makeup done to make sure they love the way they look. All of that is a couple hundred dollars added on to the total expense. An average cost for all this is $250. Which brings us to $620 so far and we are not done.
After all of the accessories are purchased the costs do not stop. If you would like to go out to eat with friends, depending on the place it is going to be around $25 per person. If you are really feeling the night you could hire transportation, like a limo, which is another couple hundred dollars. The total might be $770 or more.
If all of these costs catch your attention and you’re afraid you won’t be able to afford the staple things like a dress or a ticket the school has some solutions. People have donated beautiful dresses to the school to give away to students for free. These dresses are located in room F200. They have a ton of different colors, styles, and sizes to choose from. They will also alter the dress for free. If the $60 ticket to the dance is too much, stop in the back office and talk to Trista Partlow.
It might feel like you do, but you do not need all of these extra and expensive things to have a good night. The most important thing is finding a group or a date you genuinely like and you will have fun.