Hi Everyone!
It’s almost prom season! Most ladies will probably be looking for their prom dresses or have already found one. It’s been a number of years since my prom, but I’d like to share my experience at prom. I wish I could say that I danced the night away, but it’s not like the movies or tv shows you watch. Especially since Canadian proms are different from American ones- we don’t have a prom court where we vote for Prom King and Queen. Maybe other schools in Canada do, but ours didn’t.
Prom is a rite of passage for finishing high school, so even if I don’t sound like I enjoyed it, I had fun with my friends and got to dress up. It may not seem like it, but prom is expensive. You spend hundreds of dollars for one night. Now, I know what you’re thinking…a wedding is the same, you spend thousands of dollars for one night too, but at least at your wedding, you’re the centre of attention. At prom, you just get mixed in with the rest of your classmates. For my prom, I think I spent about $500-700…or rather, my parents spent $500-700. Thanks mom and dad! I’m sure other people spent a lot more. Some people spend that much on their dress. The following is a list of costs that I racked up for my prom:
| Category | Cost |
| Dress | $380 |
| Shoes | $30 |
| Accessories | $30 |
| Hair and makeup | $0 |
| Mani/pedi | $15 |
| Prom ticket | $100 |
| Limo | $45 |
| Total | $600 |
I bought my dress from BCBG MaxAzria. I had a hard time finding shoes. I wanted silver ones. I would’ve spent more if I could find a pair that I liked, but I found an okay pair for $30. I already owned the earrings I wore, but I bought a silver clutch. I did my own hair and did eye makeup with some concealer (this was before I used foundation). The limousine was $45 per person with a group of 14. Our school held an after party on a boat. I didn’t attend and I can’t remember how much it was (maybe $20-50). My date chose not to wear a jacket, so I didn’t get a boutonniere for him. He let me order the corsage (for which he paid me back, that cost about $12-15) so I could choose what I wanted.
The Dress
The search for the prom dress took a while, I dragged my mom to multiple stores for two months. Originally I got a black tulle strapless dress from Mendocino, but it was a bit loose and I was afraid it would fall down. Also, after some thinking, it wasn’t really my style. I think I started getting desperate and settled for it. I ended up returning it.
We even went to a bridal store and considered getting a custom one, but by the time I started looking, there wouldn’t have been enough time to order one. So we went everywhere else. I first saw the one at BCBG and I liked it, but wasn’t absolutely in love with it, so we kept looking. After a few weeks, we couldn’t find anything and it was cutting closer to prom, so we went back to BCBG and I bought the dress.
In the past few years, it’s become more popular for girls to choose long dresses. For our prom, more of the ladies opted for short/tea length dresses. Only a handful had long ones. I used to think I was too petite for long dresses and they’d make me look shorter. Now I love maxi dresses, especially after wearing a long bridesmaid dress for my sister’s wedding (check it out here!). You just need to know how to accessorize and flatter your shape.
I wish I accessorized with a necklace. Since my dress was strapless, my shoulders and neck were pretty bare. The selfie below is from when I recreated my makeup look. Surprisingly, I didn’t take any full-length solo shots at prom. The selfie is a better quality than cropping a pic with my friends.
The Date
Back when I was in high school, promposals weren’t a huge thing like they are today. Originally I was going to just go with my group of friends, but it seemed like most of them were getting prom dates. Plus, I thought it’d be nice to have a prom date anyway, so I asked a fellow classmate. I asked him on MSN- I’ve always been more outgoing when communicating with people online. I tend to open up more to people because I’m more of a writer than a talker. Plus, I was shy and didn’t know if I would get rejected or not. I remember I was talking to my friend and asked if I should ask him or not…she said to go for it, so I did. Either way, I would’ve been going with my friends, so it didn’t really matter if he said no. One day during English class, my classmates and I were chatting about prom and I found out that my prospective date wasn’t planning to go to prom. Later that day, I asked him if he would go to prom with me. I told him that I understand if he didn’t want to go. It was close to the day and he’d be shelling out $100 for a ticket and other expenses. To my surprise, he said yes! My closest friends knew I invited him and when we got to prom, I think some people were kind of surprised that we showed up together. We weren’t in the same friend group and we were probably only seen talking about schoolwork by our classmates. We had multiple classes together and we would chat on MSN.
The Day
On prom day, my friends and I went to get manicures and pedicures. I’m very ticklish, so I just got a manicure. I’ve always had the fear that I would be getting a pedicure and accidentally kick the lady in the face from being too ticklish.
Everyone came to my house to get ready together and take pictures. I don’t have a pool like most prom pictures include, but we took pictures on my front lawn and porch which was good enough for us. My friends plus dates were a group of 9. I think it was an awkward number to have, we either had too many for a smaller one or not enough for a bigger one. So we asked another group of friends who lived close by to share a limo with us.
Our prom was at the Design Exchange– it was really nice and the food was okay (chicken, potatoes and veggies). I think I was the only one to finish my plate- I was hungry after the hair and makeup prep. We didn’t really dance that much at our prom, but we mingled with other friends and took lots of pictures. We got the professional prom date picture that everyone takes.
After Party
The school rented a boat for our after party. A lot of people went to the after party, but two of my friends and I decided not to attend. We had a sleepover instead. We watched some movies and played games. I think we had more fun than if we had gone to the after party. Some of my friends went. I remember they quickly got changed and rushed over to get to the dock on time. Parties aren’t my thing and I didn’t want to be stuck in the middle of the water with a bunch of drunk classmates.
It wasn’t like proms you see in movies like She’s All That and Never Been Kissed (lol those are really old references) but I still enjoyed myself because I was with my friends. So if you’re on the fence about going, I think it’s something that everyone should experience, even if it’s not what you expect!
Did you go to your prom? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!
Love
The Day
On prom day, my friends and I went to get manicures and pedicures. I’m very ticklish, so I just got a manicure. I’ve always had the fear that I would be getting a pedicure and accidentally kick the lady in the face from being too ticklish.
Everyone came to my house to get ready together and take pictures. I don’t have a pool like most prom pictures include, but we took pictures on my front lawn and porch which was good enough for us. My friends plus dates were a group of 9. I think it was an awkward number to have, we either had too many for a smaller one or not enough for a bigger one. So we asked another group of friends who lived close by to share a limo with us.
Our prom was at the Design Exchange– it was really nice and the food was okay (chicken, potatoes and veggies). I think I was the only one to finish my plate- I was hungry after the hair and makeup prep. We didn’t really dance that much at our prom, but we mingled with other friends and took lots of pictures. We got the professional prom date picture that everyone takes.
After Party
The school rented a boat for our after party. A lot of people went to the after party, but two of my friends and I decided not to attend. We had a sleepover instead. We watched some movies and played games. I think we had more fun than if we had gone to the after party. Some of my friends went. I remember they quickly got changed and rushed over to get to the dock on time. Parties aren’t my thing and I didn’t want to be stuck in the middle of the water with a bunch of drunk classmates.
It wasn’t like proms you see in movies like She’s All That and Never Been Kissed (lol those are really old references) but I still enjoyed myself because I was with my friends. So if you’re on the fence about going, I think it’s something that everyone should experience, even if it’s not what you expect!
Did you go to your prom? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!
