There are 30 days until prom, and many Hoover girls have yet to find the perfect dress. Senior Jackie Demate is in that boat. “I unfortunately have not found my prom dress yet, and have yet to start really looking,” she said. Demate also said she does not have a strict budget for her senior prom dress. “I made a deal with my parents that since I have so many older cousins, I would wear one of their dresses for every school dance up until my senior prom, and then I’d finally buy one,” she said. “So they’re willing to put some money into this dress, since it’s the first and last one I’m buying.” Junior Sarah Hershey, on the other hand, said she put a budget on her prom dress from the beginning. “I didn’t want to spend over $100,” she said. Hershey said she found her dress the first day she went shopping, at a consignment shop called Twice Is Nice. “My dress was the second one I tried on but I tried on like 12 more [after] that one,” Hershey said. While Hershey spent about $76, junior Brooke Burdette said she was willing to spend a little more for her perfect dress. “My budget was $200, but I found my dress for $150,” Burdette said. While she said she did not remember how many dresses she tried on before choosing with the one she bought, Burdette said she tried on quite a few. “I decided on the dress that I chose because I felt it looked good on me,” she said. “It was just the dress that I felt good [and] pretty [in]. I got the ‘this is my dress’ feeling.” Although Burdette said she went to mainstream stores first and ended up buying her dress from The Winner, Hershey said she usually tries consignment shops. “I always get my dresses at the consignment store I work at,” she said. “They are cheaper and are in really good condition.” Even though Hershey said she found her perfect dress for less, Demate said she is willing to spend more money to find her perfect senior prom dress. “There’s something special about prom, it only comes twice in your life,” she said. “The dresses are much more extravagant and unique, more special, more princess like. And all of those things cost more money.” Burdette agreed. “I think finding the perfect prom dress is so important because you want to be able to, I guess, make a ‘perfect night’ and you need to look perfect,” Burdette said. “You want to find a dress that will create the ‘perfect night.’” Burdette said she thinks it is important to a girl to find the perfect dress because “prom is always made to be such a big deal, so everyone wants an original dress that no one else is going to have.” Hershey agreed. “I think prom dresses for girls are important because when we were little we watched all those prom movies so we have an image of dresses to look like that,” she said. Demate said not only that prom dresses are important to the girl, but feeling beautiful in the dress is as well. “Unless a woman’s cultural background offers her a big celebration such as a Quinceanera or the chance to be a Debutante, she has two moments in her life where she is truly given the chance to dress up and feel like a princess: her wedding and prom,” she said. “Walking around in a dress that is special and flattering to your figure makes you feel beautiful and gives you confidence. I remember playing dress up and walking around in my moms bridesmaid dresses as a little girl. I felt like a princess or a freaking movie star. Every girl deserves to have that ‘all eyes on me’ feeling at least a few times in her life.” Demate said she plans to be different from the other girls at prom. She, like Hershey, said she plans to go to consignment and thrift stores, but for somewhat different reasons. “I like to be different,” she said. “And those stores offer a lot of things you may not find anywhere else.” Whether the perfect dress ends up being something stereotypical and princess-like or as Demate said, “a crazy dress only Lady Gaga could wear,” Hershey, Burdette and Demate said they all agree each girl deserves to have her moment feeling like a princess.  “[Each girl] has their own ‘princess-moment’ dress in mind and I think all of us intend to find it one way or another,” Demate said.