Dress Shopping or Slow Torture?

So I told Dani that while she can't date until she's sixteen, we would allow her to go to the homecoming dance with a group of her friends. She was on the phone before I finished my sentence putting together a group. She and about six or seven girlfriends are going to dinner at Iron Chef Japanese Steak House and then to the dance together next Saturday night. I was even invited along to dinner...to take pictures and undoubtably pay Dani's bill. I told Dani it would be fine if she wanted to have the group here to get ready together too. She liked the social aspect of that idea, but hasn't decided if she wants to share her space with anyone while she's getting ready yet. Which brings us to the dress...

We looked on-line, she asked around school, and convinced me we needed to go to Debz, a trendy store in Eastgate Mall. They seemed to me, to specialize in the trend of the hour, glitzy, cheaply made. But it's what she wanted. I don't think I've quite felt my age so much as when I was sitting there with five other moms in sweats watching our tiny size 0-2 daughters try on dress after dress and whine about the fit. We narrowed it down to three dresses. My favorite on her was on clearance for $20. Price had nothing to do with it - seriously! But she wanted blue. (She does look amazing in blue and she knows it. Girl's gotta know her strengths.) Both of the remaining two dresses were different shades of royal blue, one more navy than the other. The navy one was more modest and honestly looked better on her in my opinion, but that was the kiss of death for the dress. So we got the one she wanted most with the understanding that it was a little short, I would alter the cleavage, you couldn't call it a "neck-line" and she would keep a shrug on the entire night...even if she got sweaty hot.

Here it is unaltered and in a different shade of blue from the store's website. Heaven help me when she does turn sixteen!