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Randall Jeppesen ReportingProm's a big deal for any generation, but one thing's for sure, today's prom costs a lot of money.
"Tux is about a hundred, tickets are forty, flowers twenty, dinner forty."
Melanie Birch has been getting her son ready for the big dance.
"Well, ice skating during the day, there's another fifteen or twenty dollars, then pictures."
Don't forget the fancy ride.
"They're sharing a bus, a company bus. That's going to cost them twenty."
Total estimate is $320; she's splitting the cost with her son, but she has a couple of daughters as well.
"But they don't have the expensive part like the guys, I don't think."
I'm not so sure about that,and for the sake of the story, I went where I've never gone before--prom dress shopping.
"It's brocade, then it has taffeta at the bottom. It's a tube top style and with the beading at the top."
I have no idea what Kay Lee Perea just told me, but this dress runs about $250 at "Mariposa", and she's been selling a lot of fancy formals ranging from $70 to $350.
"Retro is definitely coming back. We have some shorter styles, poofy styles. A lot of mothers come in and say these styles are what they saw when they went to proms."
Maybe guys don't have the expensive part after all.
"Girls spend amazing. I bet like $500. Dress, hair, shoes, maybe even more."
There are some alternatives. I found shops renting gowns for $45. There's also Becca's Closest at Granite high school that rents gowns for free to students who otherwise wouldn't be able to go. But come on, everyone needs a big night out once in a while.
