The cost of Prom Night

Mummy says…. ‘It has been and gone for my youngest daughter, the most anticipated night of her secondary school life – Prom Night. If you have been through this with your daughter, then this will come as no surprise to you, however if you have yet to experience this phenomenon then you may get a shock!

My daughter is not the sort of girl who demands brand names – in clothing or make up, we live in rural West Wales, so do not have access to the big high street stores with such tempting wares as Mac make up or designer dresses.

Even so, and rightly so, she wanted the best she could have for her prom night, and I as her proud mother who has so much to thank her for, wanted this for her too.

So, the first thing is THE dress. Dress hunting can start before Christmas for a May / June prom.

Post Christmas sales are the perfect place to look. And we did, and we found the perfect dress at a bargain price. But it sold out super fast and we missed it. We both spent the following months searching for a similar one to no avail. Lea knew exactly what she wanted, which was s huge bonus, but we just couldn’t find it.

I was thinking about getting one custom made – until I read of the horror story of what had happened to another blogger, Emma, and I quickly decided against it. We eventually found one online that looked perfect, was a great price, and was a UK company. I ordered it and waited with bated breath for it to arrive.

When it did, it was stunning. It fit like a glove, and more importantly Lea loved it. It was floor length, very fitted with one thigh high split. It was a vision of black sequins and was perfect with Lea’s delicate colouring.

Then there were the shoes. The bag, jewellery? Luckily I had a pair of unworn gorgeous sparkly, strappy evening heels that fit Lea perfectly and matched the dress beautifully. My so beautiful daughter accepted them without a single ‘I want new ones’ saving us another expense.

Jewellery was simply earrings, as you can see, no necklace was needed. The bag was found on the high street in our nearest town, but even so, the outfit and accessories cost over £100 – and could have been nearer £200.

Make up – the only time Lea has ever had it ‘done’ professionally cost £40, (Boo to the beautician who charged the girls an extra £10 because it was prom – and she told them all too!) HD brows a further £20 and nails (again, the first time having them in a salon) were £20.

Lea saved me another £40 on hair by styling hers herself, and her after prom party dress (yes, you read that right, another dress!) was found for only £20.

Prom ticket was £15 for the venue, food and a photo booth, luckily we had no taxi or limo hire costs too!

So the grand total was something over £200 – and believe me, this could have easily been doubled.

I really needed a little extra to help me out with this expense, and it was a good job I found Vivus, a company that offers extra cash just until you get paid.

Their clear, easy to use, easy to navigate website let me calculate immediately how much I wanted to borrow, for how long, and showed me right there exactly what it would cost me.

No jargon, no veiled, vague offers, just a simple calculation so I could see precisely what was on offer, and what the cost would be to me.

The website explained what information I needed to give and the whole application process, this is a service for responsible borrowers only, who just need a little extra for a very short time.

Luckily in the end, I didn’t need to use Vivus, but I would definitely look at them next time I need a little extra.

Have you had Prom Night in your family yet?’