| Is prom worth your pretty pennies?
The prom dance at MCHS is a big money maker every year, as well as for many other businesses around town, but is all of this spending worth attending up to student's satisfaction?
Afton Ingraffia Freatures Editor
Haily Marker travels to Windsor to shop for her prom dress this year Excited, she parks her car and strolls into the store to shop away with a budget of 200 dollars After taking a look around, Haily picks out a few dresses to be helped with in the fitting rooms Finally, finding the sparkly, elegant dress she loves, she glances at the price tag Taken back with shock, Haily reads, ‘500 dollars’ Seriously? It was cute but not 500 dollars cute
“Prom" is a shortened term for "promenade," referring to a formal dance Prom this year at MCHS is on April 25, and attending students are greatly looking forward to it Paired with the excitement though, comes an expense
“Even though I have spent a lot this year,” senior Haily Marker says, “I’m still excited for the night ”
For girls attending, as if prom tickets didn’t already cost 100 dollars, the prom dress market size was valued at USD 14 81 billion in 2024 The market is projected to grow from USD 15 54 billion in 2025 to USD 22 56 billion by 2032 according to Fortune Business Insights
However, on average, any girl will spend about 400–1000 dollars and possibly even more, on their big night with all the abovementioned costs, including prom tickets, their dress, heels, nails, hair, jewelry, accessories and other beauty products
“Between both my sister and I,” junior Layla Duebel says, “we’ve already spent around 2000 dollars ”
If you're going with a partner, along with those costs come “Promposals” and bouquets, then boutonnieres and corsages

Students meet on the dance floor during last year’s prom before dancing
students, plenty of students spend twice as much on dresses and tuxedoes,
“Already, I've spent around 300-400 dollars,” junior Devin Elbert says, “It’s a whole lot of money for only one night ” There are many ways to save money for prom by maybe re-wearing a pair
of old dress shoes or even doing your hair and makeup yourself For girls, another good option would be looking at discount dresses “I bought my dress at the Gipper


TheMcHenryMessengerisMcHenryCommunityHigh School’sstudent-writtenand-editednewspaper Launchedin2019,TheMcHenryMessengeristhe student-runandstudent-editedschoolnewspaperat McHenryHighSchoolinMcHenry,Illinois
Studentjournalistshavetherighttoexercisefreedomof speechandthepressinhighschoolmedia The McHenryMessengerbenefitsfromtheserights Wehope tousethisplatformtoinformandengagethestudents andstaffofMcHenryHighSchoolaswellasitsbroader community
Asastudent-drivenpublication itisimportanttous thatwerepresenteverygroupwithinbothcampusesas wellasthebroaderMcHenrycommunity providinga platformforthemtotelltheirstories Weintendto provideaccesstoobjective,relevantinformationthat theyneedtoknow
outlet this year, which definitely helped me save a couple dollars,” sophomore Ella Synek says “It looks just like one I would buy at full price from Gipper Prom ”




