WOODBURY: “Did you get your prom dress yet?”
“Are you getting a corsage this year or a bouquet?”
“Where are you getting your dress?”
“Tuxes are so expensive this year.”
“I don’t know what I am going to do.”
These are the conversations spiraling around our school. Between the dress, the bouquet, the corsages, boutonnieres, shoes, jewelry, and tickets, this is only half of the cost. Prom has become not just a formal dance for the upperclassmen, or a rite of passage every teenager gets to experience, but it has become a huge expense to many high schoolers.
According to the article “Glitz and Glam: A Guide to the True Costs of Prom” by The Maroon and Gray, the average high school student will spend between $600 and $1,000 dollars. This expense comes from everything from the outfit to the transportation. High school proms have become more of a red carpet event rather than a school event.
“I’m really mad about how expensive the prom tickets are,” says senior Samantha Sorcher, “I have to spend like $250 to get my hair done. If I wasn’t doing my nails, that would be another $80. Dresses alone are $600. Bouquets are like $100 bucks, if you have to pay for your date’s ticket, that’s another cost. $95 dollars is not just something a senior can throw around.”
High school proms have become a huge expense for many students and some are beginning to believe it might not be worth it.
“The average dress is $500 up to $1000,” says junior Raegan LaPointe. “It’s literally insane to buy a dress that expensive that you’re only going to wear once. You can’t even wear it anywhere after and yeah it’s a good occasion, but it’s so expensive.”
Although some students feel like the cost of prom is much too high, the senior class council has done anything they can to lower the cost.
“They’re actually the lowest they’ve been in years,” says senior class council member, Hailey Hansen. “$75 for seniors this year, and it was $100 dollars for seniors last year. I still think it’s ridiculously high, but all things considered we can’t do much about that because considering that the venue is expensive.”
For class council members like Hansen, there were certain costs associated with prom that were necessities and needed to remain.
“We had a bunch of things to include, like, the food. So that added a couple extra dollars, including the decorations and the hospitalities,” Hansen said. “The senior class council also took some of the funds off. So it’s a lot cheaper than it really could have been.”
Although there are conflicting opinions on whether or not prom should be as expensive as it is, junior Dylan Diezel reminds us of something important:
“I mean, it’s expensive, but, you know, you will have the money again, not the memories,” Diezel said.
