Suggestions for formal wear for 12 and 13 year old girls please

[SunnyCal]

Hi Everyone,

 

We will be sailing on the Sun Princess the end of June to Alaska. I am wondering how dressy my daughters clothing should be for formal nights. Do I need to get "fancy" dresses, or will cotton dresses and or skirts with a blouse or sweater work? We have beautiful bridesmaid dresses they wore earlier this year, but with all the poof, they are very impractical to take in a suitcase.

 

Sunnycal

[ute_fan]

Just a suggestion -- would the bridesmaid dresses fit in a garment bag? They sure would be cute for the formal night pictures. We picked up a cheap garment bag to take at KMart or someplace similar -- I think it was only $25 and it did the job just fine.

[mommykim]

Hello there,

Basically they should be as dressed up as you want them for a family photo. There is no real right or wrong and I know a lot of the teens change pretty much right after dinner. I would dress them to please yourself and not anyone else. You will see kids in everything from very dressy to slightly better than jeans and a t-shirt that night. Hope you have a great time on your cruise!

Kim

[familycruzer]

My DD dresses up for formal night and really enjoys it. We found some great dresses at Deb Shops if you are intererested in checking them out.

[Ehpride]

Just another thought. They'll probably grow out of those dresses soon and if they and you really love them, why not get another use out of them? Like someone else suggested, you could always use a garment bag and steam them on the ship.

[soprano]

My suggestion is a bit different. With our girls, we let them decide what to wear. They know the guidelines are anything from church-type dresses to the sky's the limit glitzy. It's so much easier to get them to wear something that they chose!

[suzsummit]

You can never go wrong with a long black skirt.

 

Then your daughters can pick one or two tops to go with it. That way they can make it trendy or more classic. It also workd great if you have more than one formal night.

 

I went to a bridal store and picked up some really great gowns for my girls (10 and 12) for under $40 a piece. Seems they were selling bridesmaids/flower girls dresses that brides never picked up....

 

good luck

[SunnyCal]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Garment bags, can't believe that I didn't consider that one! I had the black skirt idea myself and bought some today. I also bought ivory cardigans (will match those bridesmaid dresses nicely) for the air conditioned resaurant and walking on deck. The girls will have very dressy, Easter dressy, and black skirt dressy outfits. We paid the final payment yesterday so my excitement is kicking into high gear now.

 

Sunnycal

[karessamom]

I have about 18 months to try and convince my dd to dress for formal night!

She wears jean skirts to church and hates to dress up--she's very athletic and tomboyish! What can anybody suggest??--I doubt she'd wear a "pant's suite" Normal school attire is jeans, sweats, or work out pants etc. Church like i said is a jean skirt.

[Tess2mommies]

I have about 18 months to try and convince my dd to dress for formal night!

She wears jean skirts to church and hates to dress up--she's very athletic and tomboyish! What can anybody suggest??--I doubt she'd wear a "pant's suite" Normal school attire is jeans, sweats, or work out pants etc. Church like i said is a jean skirt.

 

A lot can change in 18 months. By then she might actually enjoy dressing up.

[karessamom]

What makes matters worse (and maybe this is part of the reason) is that already she's 5'11" so by then she'll be close to 6' (probably over 6') it's hard to find her anything that fits right, and when you can it's really expensive!

I can sew but she won't wear anything i make--even if she picks out the pattern and fabric.

[suzsummit]

My 12 year old isn't so keen on the standard stuff.... so we bought her some midevil long dress out of a catalog -- she loves them because they are different. Maybe ask her what she thinks would be "FUN" to wear and then see what you can find. I feel like half my problems of what to dress my 12 year old in is that I am trying to get her to wear what I WANT her to wear-- rahter then listening to her and then setting guidelines (cut... what gets to be shown....)

 

Also try resale shops... I have found some great gowns in there -- stuff is usually never worn or only worn once.

 

good luck,

[heymom32000]

Also check out Ebay. There are quite a few formal and interesting dresses on there.

[#1TravelMom]

Call your local Goodwill Store. We happened to stop in when they were clearing out old prom gowns. My 15 year old found a beautiful gown - they were all priced at $5. Guess what- the 2nd night she wore it she caught the overlay on something sharp and tore it. Oh well - we just threw it away. Only out $5.