Quest for the dress -- Part 1: Mall Mania...

Once the date (as in boy, not calendar) was confirmed, we had to get to work on the dress.

Note to self: purchase next year's prom dress in January.

Things I've learned from the local prom dress search:

• Definitions of modest vary widely.
• Mall parking spaces are not designed for full-sized SUV's, driven by spacial relations-challenged women. 
• The prom dress shop at the mall is WAY OVERPRICED... as in need-a-second-mortgage-on-the-house overpriced.
• Department stores carry some seriously ugly (or seriously skanky) prom dresses.
• The amount of fabric in the dress seems to have no direct correlation with the price of the dress.
• I am pretty sure I had a ballet tutu in second grade that looked just like one of the prom dresses in the mall prom shop. 
• Store dresses are not at all clean or snag-free.

I found some pictures of dresses that represent the selection at the mall.

Hello, tutu!

Why, yes. That is camo print.

Between top slit and bottom slit, not a lot of fabric holds in stuff.

Yes, well...

Stabby sequins and out of dress code.

Prom dress shopping at the mall was a pretty big salt-and-light test for me. People were rude, grabby, profane, snide, snippy, and immodest. The prices were OH. MY. WORD. expensive. I kept thinking about Dave Ramsey and Samaritan's Purse. Dave Ramsey: don't let it be a budget-buster. Samaritan's Purse: have any idea how many people you could feed/ provide fresh water for/ share the gospel with for that much money?!

I found myself wrestling between wanting to give my princess the most beautiful, perfect prom dress in the history of all promdressdom and wanting not to miss the opportunity to focus on God's beauty as He shines through us. Store-bought beauty vs. heaven-sent beauty.

Sooo... between price, style, nondresscodeness, and the vast quantities of snagged fabric and makeup inside the dresses, we decided to go home and shop the interwebs.