It's that time of year again! The Birds are chirping, every girl is sitting in the classroom wondering who will ask them to prom/formal this year? Kevin? Mark? Bob? The guys are all day dreaming about what they could have done with the money that they are now spending on there date. But the most important thing that is going through every girls mind is... "What am I gong to wear to the formal!?!"
Yes! FORMAL! It's here and we are going to shop till we drop, while staying within a budget of under $65.00! I promise you it is possible! Do not be alarmed! You do not have to spend your parents life savings on your prom or formal! "What?" "No way?" "I am going to faint!"
Now, there are several ways to be money savvy when it comes to formal. For example, you could trade dresses with some of your good ol girl friends from the year before. If you have a big sister that has moved out of the house you could gab one of her old dresses, maybe give it a hem, a little tweak and wallah Brand new for you! But if you are like me, you really like shopping!
First of all, never ever go to a bridal shop, a prom dress store, boutique, or a mall. Don't even go to Ross! Their stuff is cheap... but that is for a reason. Besides why would you want to go to where everyone else is getting their dresses? You know that fear you get, when you think, "What if somebody wears my same dress!?!?" Well avoiding these stores, avoids that problem. So here is what I did. (P.S. It was so much fun!) I went to the Antique mall!
"What?" "The Antique Mall?" Yes people the Antique Mall! And in my neighboring town's antique mall there is a upper room called a the boutique. In which there are millions (hypothetically speaking) dresses, men's suites, accessories and more! They have great prices and superb costumer service. Their dressing rooms are right next to the only bathroom in the entire "mall" for easy access if you know what I mean. (wink wink).
Oh hey guys I just got back from my commercial break. Anyways this upper room is great, there are a bunch of good dresses ranging from 1930's to now days! That's right you can even get the resent stuff for really cheap! As in money people. So in this upper room my friend and I played dress up, trying on things from the 80's and she went all out accessorizing every outfit! What fun!
So here comes the most exciting part of the entire shopping trip as every shopping trip is for me... the bargains. Now if you have been reading my blog then you know that I like to look up the original price, (if I can find it) and give it an evaluation on my bargain, you know to see if I got a good deal or not. So I looked up my dress and it turns out to be a Mori Lee by Madeline Gardner! Isn't that exciting? Don't worry I have never heard of her either. Well it turns out that her dresses go from $100 (on sale) - $700! My dress by looking at her other designs was probably around the $200 range, and I got it for only $34.00!
You just fainted didn't you? Yes! I knew it! Well after finding my perfect formal dress, and my friend's great 1960's dress. We headed off to just look around the "mall" and see what we could see in about five minuets There was this one booth that had a rack of jewelry from the 50's-60's. And low and behold there it was... I grabbed this cute necklace, my mom said it looked like the same color as my dress, and behold it was... the perfect necklace. And only $6.00! Hey that is pretty good for an authentic vintage necklace that's around 50 to 60 years old! My grandma could have worn this same necklace at her prom or formal!
Well after buying these things we went back home... and my mom and I woke up early the next morning to complete the outfit! By the way if you have or will be going shopping with your mother for prom or formal, please say thank you and wish her a happy mom's day! :) Love you mom, and thanks! <3
As I was saying, we went to another town to look for the accessories (great story but this post is getting to be extremely long, way longer than I thought it was going to be). Haha! So my mom and I went to this great "world" store, you know like the kind that you get stuff from all over the world like jewelry (wink wink). We walked into the store with only a picture and a vision! In which was fulfilled for an even better bargain than we could have ever expected! The perfect earrings, that actually matched the necklace! It was a pack of 12 for $4.50, so one pair that I would wear for formal was only .38 cents!
Next we went to Joann's Fabric (
I love you my love! I told you I would come back some day!) So we got some gold sash that was a bounce off color of yet again the necklace, and the sash really gave the dress more of a shape on the torso and it also really tied the whole outfit together, literally! This was not all that cheap but hey, I do think that there are very small exceptions to the rule. Remind you I say VERY small exceptions. So here it is $7.47.
Lastly the shoes, did you know that Payless has coupons?
So we went to Payless to get their "every day low price" of $19.99, (aka $20) for only $12.49, (aka $12.50). With the help of a coupon, and my sister who needed a pair of shoes so that we could get the deal. :) They are comfort plus nude pumps. Love them! I love them so much that they are still up here right next to me on my desk I can see them right now. And they are mainly here because there is no room in my closet because of my dress.
So if you were calculating all of those prices and didn't get under 65 then your calculator is broken. So lets recap.
*Dress: $34.00
*50's-60's necklace: $6.00
*Earrings: .38 cents
*Gold Sash: $7.47
*Shoes: $12.49
Total amount, drum role please... dralalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala : $60.34
"Whoo hoo!" "How dose she do it?" "Lalala!" "Yay!" "Bravo!" "Ole!"
So those of you nonbelievers, is it still impossible Well maybe for those who really just hate spending bottom price. But really, who is that? Everybody loves a good deal but not many know how to get it. So I hope that this will be appealing to all of you prom/formal shoppers out there, and maybe you parents could show this to your little princess, and prove to them that they can look great and still pay the minimal amount.
So happy shopping and bargaining and may all of your prom and formal dreams come true.
Until next time,
See Ya Later!
In the beginning of last school year, my amazing geometry teacher, handed me two dresses that she didn't want any more. Well I took them and 10 months later I finally did something with the first one, the other is still in the process of being "remade". When I tried it on even though the color looked good I just couldn't see myself wearing it, and couldn't think of something to make it in to. Until I looked at my sister. She was smaller than me, so that meant that, I could use the material more easily and that's how it all started...
