FORMAL GOWNS

Formal gowns

My daughter was had been invited to her first formal dance. She came home, glowing, and announced the fact that the gorgeous boy in her science class that she'd been drooling over for months, invited her. She begged me to allow her to go. I couldn't deny her this opportunity. She didn't even miss a beat when she also announced that we would be going shopping this coming weekend for a formal gown. I'd been dreading this moment since she was a little girl playing dress up.

The day before we were to go shopping for the perfect dress, she told me that all of the girls she knew were getting their formal gowns from bridal shops. Weren't bridal shops just for wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses? My daughter ever so politely informed me that no, times have changed. And so, we set out to a local bridal shop that she claimed was also selling formal gowns that were for homecomings and proms. As she walked through the aisles of formal gowns, I glanced at a few price tags and gasped. There was no way that I was able to afford some of these gowns.

After two hours of trying on various formal gowns and rejecting several, she had settled on one particular gown that looked perfect on her. Unfortunately, it was about a hundred dollars more than I'd hoped to spend. She saw me look at the price tag and I saw the disappointment on her face. I couldn't bear it, so I smiled, vowed to work a few extra hours in the coming weeks, and paid for it without saying a word. The next year, she was a junior and once again, invited to a formal dance. Surprisingly, she remembered the high prices of the formal gowns, and she said that she had a plan. She went online and started browsing many sites that sell formal gowns. As I sat with her, looking at these glamorous gowns, I couldn't help wondering how in the world people could buy formal gowns without trying them on. My daughter found a gorgeous dress that was definitely within my budget. All smiles, she ordered it. When her formal gown arrived, she anxiously tried it on. It needed only one minor adjustment and luckily, I
was able to alter the straps on my own. This dress had cost significantly less than the prior year's and she looked even more radiant.

It is amazing how many formal gowns are available online. Sure, you can hit some bridal shops or local department stores and pay the steep prices. Most of the online sites that can be found are quite reasonable and offer some formal gowns that may not even be available in your area. Plus, it saves you from being dragged from store to store figuring out how to not make it obvious that you're looking at the price tags.