It’s that time of year again - prom season. This year was my little sister’s prom, so we’ve been going through the motions the last few weeks, especially on the day. She looked beautiful and going through all of this again – getting her ready, taking photos of her and her friends, watching as they all drove off in the limo - it made me think all the way back 4 years ago to my prom. That’s right, it’s been 4 years since my prom. I’m getting old now, I’ll be receiving my pensioners bus pass before I know it.
I didn’t get the full works for prom like a lot of the girls get, we simply couldn’t afford spending hundreds on a dress and another £100 plus on hair, shoes, nails, makeup etc, and more on a car, but we worked with what we could.
My dress was from some online store that I genuinely couldn’t even begin to name now. It was something like £99, and I had to give them my measurements, so it’d come fitted to me. To be fair, I’d give the dress a good 8/10, the only things I’d say is that it needed more tulle around the bottom to cover up the slip a bit more and it should’ve been longer, but that could’ve been fixed with the tulle too. I don’t think I’d change my shoes at all, I got a comfy pair of while platform sandals from boohoo – didn’t have to take them off during the night because they didn’t hurt, and then I kept them to wear throughout the next few summers.
I did my own hair, makeup and nails. This is where I’d change most things if I were to do it again. I bought hair extensions so that I’d have long tumbling curls and have that princessey effect. Unfortunately, when I tried to curl them on the day, being synthetic extensions, they didn’t curl. So that was one big fail, I had to settle for shoulder length curls instead. The other big fail was the elven crown I bought. It’s a beautiful wirework headpiece, but I didn’t secure it properly, and I didn’t bend it to fit my head properly either, so it ended up just slipping down my head all evening. I also didn’t know how to do eyeshadow at the time, and we hadn’t got to the highlight and contour trends just yet, so I had a very basic face. I just did my usual everyday makeup with a cat eye winged liner (but tbf I wore that every day anyway) and really badly filled in my eyebrows with a pencil. I didn’t even wear lipstick!? Why? Who is she? On the upside, I bought a nail polish that matched the colour of my dress, which was actually very pretty so I can’t complain there.
If I were to do it again, the first thing I’d change is my dress. It was a nice dress but wasn’t really made very well. Less and less girls seem to be buying the big poofy ball gowns that were popular when I was doing prom, and more elegant, red carpet-esque dresses. You can now get beautiful evening dresses on ASOS for under £100, and I’ve had a look around and chose a few that I think I’d choose. I particularly like no.3, 7 & 19! [All links at the end of the post].
I’d keep my sandals, if you couldn’t see them anyway. I also think I’d do my own makeup still – I did my sisters for her this year. My makeup skills have come on exponentially over the last four years, so I’d be able to give myself a nice makeup look and not have to pay the £40 for someone else to do the same thing.
I’d throw away that stupid wire crown thing though. I might have some sparkle in my hair in the form of clips or grips or whatever, but definitely not some stupid bent pieces of wire, that don’t even fit my head. I also might get a professional to do my hair for me so it’s styled as best as it possibly can be, rather than just some pretty bad loose curls by a 16-year-old in a rush.
What about you? If you could redo your prom again, would you change anything? Or if you haven’t done your prom yet, what are you planning for it? Leave a comment below and let me know!
DRESS LINKS: