With just days to go before prom, you found yourself digging through the dress racks in discount stores and scrolling through countless prom websites, feeling your anxiety growing more and more as you searched for the perfect dress that wouldn’t go over budget but would still make you feel like a princess for a night.
As the prices seemed to rise and the options declined, you couldn’t help but worry that you’d be stuck in a room full of designer gowns wearing your own budget-friendly find, somehow still feeling like you fell short.
The junior and senior prom is a traditional event in many high schools across the U.S. At prom, upperclassmen celebrate the end of their last few years of high school at a formal end-of-the-year dance party, featuring all the friends they’ve made along the way.
However, with prom comes the expectation of having the perfect outfit, hair and accessories, which can create a significant amount of unwanted stress.
The weight of this expectation caused many students to feel overloaded with worry and pressure – feeling obligated to take part in prom and be dressed as dazzling as the crowd surrounding them. This can be difficult because of the standard for people to wear the most fashionable prom outfits, which according to Terani Couture average at around $300-$700. Not everyone can afford this costly attire, which on occasion for students, can make it difficult to feel comfortable participating in prom.
“I think dresses are just way too expensive, especially for what they are, which is just plain long dresses. It’s too much,” first-time prom attendee and senior Leslie Tellez said. “I get it’s prom, but you’re only gonna use it once. Get a dress that’s in a good price range and looks pretty. I’m positive there’s a lot of dresses like that.”
Another big issue students faced this prom season was the financial feasibility of affording a ticket in the first place. When dances come around, oftentimes a single person purchases a ticket for themself and their partner. However, prom tickets easily surpassed the ticket price for the average school dance. With the price of tickets being $70, students ended up spending over $100 for 2.
“I mean, $70 is quite a bit, especially for you know we’re also paying for the dress and for the hair and stuff like that,” Bridges said, “so I definitely think that’s quite a lot of money.”
The prices for prom outfits are high, but accessorizing them can also be quite pricey, and often a hassle during this season. Some students went all out for prom, getting their hair and makeup done, finding the perfect color for their shoes and matching the shiniest jewelry to their outfits..
People at Norrix tend to spend generally around $50-$500 on accessories. Finding the right places and prices for these sorts of things was hard, especially when everyone around you was trying to do the same.
“I think for me shoes,” senior Arianna McCord said, “and maybe other people too, because it took me, I think, like two weeks after I found my prom dress to find shoes just because certain dresses, you have to find a certain color that won’t clash with it.”
While a pair of cute and comfortable shoes can make prom feel more complete, having a little bit of love to spread does wonders as well. It is undeniable that the prom is known for its socialization and romance, with many couples planning extravagant ways to ask their partners out. These are best known as promposals and are a common prom tradition that is typically a big and thoughtful way to invite someone to attend the dance with you.
Some people enjoyed making their prom experience as prominent as possible, however others felt more comfortable just going with friends, leaving the stress of planning the perfect promposal for someone behind.
For certain people, such as Tellez, there was no tension or obligation to attend this event with a partner. She chose instead to spend her time with a small group of friends at the dance.
“I’m just gonna go with my friends. I’m gonna have much of a ball, probably more,” Tellez said. “If I just find some random dude and be like ‘please go with me’ and we what, like slow dance awkwardly? I don’t wanna do that.”
Though Tellez was looking forward to attending prom, some people felt more stressed with the prom creeping up, such as freshman Isabel Bridges.
“So the person I’m going with is my best friend – she’s a junior,” Bridges said, “and it’s kind of like I feel really pressured to go with her because I don’t want her to go alone. So that’s really why I’m going.”
Bridges knew her friend wasn’t pushing her to go on purpose, but feeling pressured to go to prom with someone is intimidating. This just made preparing for the dance even more stressful. Even if students could find the money for the perfect prom experience, the intermixing peer pressure and anxiety from finding their desired look was overwhelming. Despite all the worries in preparation, many of the students that attended had an unforgettable night together at prom.
