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Prom dress shopping


bsjkki

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Prom dress shopping outside of Utah for a Mormon girl is an absolute nightmare! Dresses with sleeves are very hard to find and you don’t want your teen looking frumpy or like a grandma.

After failing at all the department stores and not willing to spend $400 to $500 at bridal boutiques, (who also lacked any selections with sleeves without going mother of the bride) we drove an hour away to a little shop and found The Dress! It was a miracle!

I’m sad she can’t wear her dress to Mormon Prom...she lacks a Mormon date and/or Mormon friends. You can go stag but all her friends are non Mormon and you can’t exactly expect them to buy a second dress to go with her.

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Can you find someone who could make a dress?  If you were here in Utah..there are mormon brides and formal wear just for weddings and stuff...check to see if they are online??  Ugh..I feel for you but I feel for her the mostest..is she upset??

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1 hour ago, bsjkki said:

I’m sad she can’t wear her dress to Mormon Prom...she lacks a Mormon date and/or Mormon friends. You can go stag but all her friends are non Mormon and you can’t exactly expect them to buy a second dress to go with her.
 

(Pardon a question from miss-oblivious)

What's the big deal about Mormon prom?

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1 hour ago, Jane_Doe said:

(Pardon a question from miss-oblivious)

What's the big deal about Mormon prom?

She is going to school prom but then they also have Mormon prom too...it’s just a fun alternative. She just won’t go alone and none of friends dresses will pass the dress  standards. Not a big deal.

It would be nice to be able to invite her non-Mormon friends to this event but that is much harder to do because of the difficulty in finding dresses.

Edited by bsjkki
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3 hours ago, bsjkki said:

Prom dress shopping outside of Utah for a Mormon girl is an absolute nightmare! Dresses with sleeves are very hard to find and you don’t want your teen looking frumpy or like a grandma.

After failing at all the department stores and not willing to spend $400 to $500 at bridal boutiques, (who also lacked any selections with sleeves without going mother of the bride) we drove an hour away to a little shop and found The Dress! It was a miracle!

I’m sad she can’t wear her dress to Mormon Prom...she lacks a Mormon date and/or Mormon friends. You can go stag but all her friends are non Mormon and you can’t exactly expect them to buy a second dress to go with her.
 

We went through this with my oldest daughter. That was of course 24-25 years ago, when it was not so difficult. There are websites that cater to such needs, however I would have thought in Utah it would be easier than most states. 

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I agree!  It was hard when I went to prom, and Mormon standards were not nearly as strict then as now. Off the shoulder and sleeveless were completely acceptable in my day.

I had this same issue when I got married in Montana and was looking for a wedding dress that fit temple standards.  It was depressing.

I’m so glad she found something!

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I was so excited to go with my daughter at first.  Then it became drugery for both of us. So many of the dresses were not just off the shoulder but cut down to the navel etc. The very few dresses we could find were so expensive.

Then we discovered a place that rents modest prom and wedding dresses. If you liked the Facebook page then she would also let you rent for free the bling - tiaras, necklaced, earings, bracelets to go with it. She did alterations on the dresses and included the slips as well. The next time around we went directly to her. 

Edited by Rain
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Hey...I took my daughter for prom dressing in the middle 90's...I just plain thought they were all ugly..no matter what and did not want to spend a dime on them..She didn't much care so I bought a used one to her liking and mine..others in the family got to use it too.  I think this is way too big a deal..

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We have like 8 or so different modest prom dresses that we got from someone (different sizes, too). My daughter wanted to have them to work with and experiment on (seamstressing), but we have ended up giving a lot of them away ("Hey, come on over and look at them and see if you like any of them!"). 

It doesn't seem as hard in Arizona to find acceptable dresses. Mormon Prom is a *big* deal, and while at first I thought LDS kids should "leaven the dough" at the school prom, there is such a critical mass and it is so big, that a lot of the Gentile kids are kind of wistful that they aren't going (kind of a good missionary tool. The LDS kids are looked up to in my area). And it is *a lot* cheaper than school prom. That is another really important consideration, especially for my family. 

It's so expensive, and so immodest, and the music is so bad (from an LDS standards standpoint), that increasingly, kids and parents are increasingly pushed to Mormon Prom options (where available). I get my "staff team player" checklist boxes filled through other means, so I don't have to chaperone prom. 

The big thing is to set up "prom groups." Last year, my son and his date (a girl he's liked for a long time who is a year older than he) were with other senior couples, and had a fancy dinner at a former bishop's house (I was one of his counselors fifteen years ago). Good group of kids! This year, we're going to host a dinner for several couples. I think I'll have my sons in middle school serve them in suits. 

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1 hour ago, rongo said:

We have like 8 or so different modest prom dresses that we got from someone (different sizes, too). My daughter wanted to have them to work with and experiment on (seamstressing), but we have ended up giving a lot of them away ("Hey, come on over and look at them and see if you like any of them!"). 

It doesn't seem as hard in Arizona to find acceptable dresses.

There must be places closer to you. We looked in Mesa, Scottsdale and Phoenix. We did also go to a dressmaker in Gilbert. We went to at least 15-20 stores before we found the rental place.

1 hour ago, rongo said:

Mormon Prom is a *big* deal, and while at first I thought LDS kids should "leaven the dough" at the school prom, there is such a critical mass and it is so big, that a lot of the Gentile kids are kind of wistful that they aren't going (kind of a good missionary tool.

I've heard very little about Mormon Prom and my daughter really struggle with the music and the dancing at her high school dances. I ought to talk with my son about it.

1 hour ago, rongo said:

The LDS kids are looked up to in my area). And it is *a lot* cheaper than school prom. That is another really important consideration, especially for my family. 

It's so expensive, and so immodest, and the music is so bad (from an LDS standards standpoint), that increasingly, kids and parents are increasingly pushed to Mormon Prom options (where available). I get my "staff team player" checklist boxes filled through other means, so I don't have to chaperone prom. 

The big thing is to set up "prom groups." Last year, my son and his date (a girl he's liked for a long time who is a year older than he) were with other senior couples, and had a fancy dinner at a former bishop's house (I was one of his counselors fifteen years ago). Good group of kids! This year, we're going to host a dinner for several couples. I think I'll have my sons in middle school serve them in suits. 

 

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1 hour ago, rongo said:

We have like 8 or so different modest prom dresses that we got from someone (different sizes, too). My daughter wanted to have them to work with and experiment on (seamstressing), but we have ended up giving a lot of them away ("Hey, come on over and look at them and see if you like any of them!"). 

It doesn't seem as hard in Arizona to find acceptable dresses. Mormon Prom is a *big* deal, and while at first I thought LDS kids should "leaven the dough" at the school prom, there is such a critical mass and it is so big, that a lot of the Gentile kids are kind of wistful that they aren't going (kind of a good missionary tool. The LDS kids are looked up to in my area). And it is *a lot* cheaper than school prom. That is another really important consideration, especially for my family. 

It's so expensive, and so immodest, and the music is so bad (from an LDS standards standpoint), that increasingly, kids and parents are increasingly pushed to Mormon Prom options (where available). I get my "staff team player" checklist boxes filled through other means, so I don't have to chaperone prom. 

The big thing is to set up "prom groups." Last year, my son and his date (a girl he's liked for a long time who is a year older than he) were with other senior couples, and had a fancy dinner at a former bishop's house (I was one of his counselors fifteen years ago). Good group of kids! This year, we're going to host a dinner for several couples. I think I'll have my sons in middle school serve them in suits. 

Do you have more info about Mormon Prom. I am pulling up one in Scottsdale that was in the beginning of March. Everything else I am finding is from 10+ years ago 

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2 hours ago, Jeanne said:

Hey...I took my daughter for prom dressing in the middle 90's...I just plain thought they were all ugly..no matter what and did not want to spend a dime on them..She didn't much care so I bought a used one to her liking and mine..others in the family got to use it too.  I think this is way too big a deal..

That's when i was attending proms and you were right, they were all ugly!  It was a horrible era for prom dress style.  

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6 hours ago, rongo said:

We have like 8 or so different modest prom dresses that we got from someone (different sizes, too). My daughter wanted to have them to work with and experiment on (seamstressing), but we have ended up giving a lot of them away ("Hey, come on over and look at them and see if you like any of them!"). 

It doesn't seem as hard in Arizona to find acceptable dresses. Mormon Prom is a *big* deal, and while at first I thought LDS kids should "leaven the dough" at the school prom, there is such a critical mass and it is so big, that a lot of the Gentile kids are kind of wistful that they aren't going (kind of a good missionary tool. The LDS kids are looked up to in my area). And it is *a lot* cheaper than school prom. That is another really important consideration, especially for my family. 

It's so expensive, and so immodest, and the music is so bad (from an LDS standards standpoint), that increasingly, kids and parents are increasingly pushed to Mormon Prom options (where available). I get my "staff team player" checklist boxes filled through other means, so I don't have to chaperone prom. 

The big thing is to set up "prom groups." Last year, my son and his date (a girl he's liked for a long time who is a year older than he) were with other senior couples, and had a fancy dinner at a former bishop's house (I was one of his counselors fifteen years ago). Good group of kids! This year, we're going to host a dinner for several couples. I think I'll have my sons in middle school serve them in suits. 

I like Mormon Prom as an alternative but where I am at, the kids usually go to both. My older kids had a nice group of Mormon friends to go to Mormon prom with. I even catered refreshments one year for it.

Sadly, this daughter has no Mormon friends to form a prom group with but she does have very nice non Mormon friends who support her in her faith.

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Everyone knows proms are coming up...  what's wrong with a number of the ward mothers going on a "discovery" mission to find the places that have more modest dresses and can recommend them... and also those who have sewing talent being able to sew up a quick bolero style jacket  in a coordinating matching color... or, like in my ward, one mother/daughter found a dress that was sleeveless, so the mother found matching color fabric and added sleeves... it was beautiful... every ward has sisters talented in sewing... they should join ranks for the benefit of our young women so they can enjoy prom activities with enthusiasm and confidence...  the music/dancing is another thing... I understand many kids from other faiths in the So Cal area are joining with the Mormons for prom...  

GG

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15 hours ago, Garden Girl said:

Everyone knows proms are coming up...  what's wrong with a number of the ward mothers going on a "discovery" mission to find the places that have more modest dresses and can recommend them... and also those who have sewing talent being able to sew up a quick bolero style jacket  in a coordinating matching color... or, like in my ward, one mother/daughter found a dress that was sleeveless, so the mother found matching color fabric and added sleeves... it was beautiful... every ward has sisters talented in sewing... they should join ranks for the benefit of our young women so they can enjoy prom activities with enthusiasm and confidence...  the music/dancing is another thing... I understand many kids from other faiths in the So Cal area are joining with the Mormons for prom...  

GG

I like this...the truth is that some of the dresses are beautiful in length, color and other things..all they need is a beautiful shawl, jacket or something to go with it. 

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On 3/23/2018 at 11:46 AM, Rain said:

Do you have more info about Mormon Prom. I am pulling up one in Scottsdale that was in the beginning of March. Everything else I am finding is from 10+ years ago 

There is one in Scottsdale, but the one we go to is in Queen Creek (I thought it was Gilbert). It's May 19th. Greatest Showman theme. Prices not yet listed, but they're significantly lower than school prom.

https://www.facebook.com/SpringFormal/

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