During the busy prom shopping season we are implementing an appointment procedure on Saturdays and Sundays. Book your 60-minute appointment on our website and we will have a fitting room reserved for you. If you arrive at the store and don’t have an appointment, we will accommodate you if we have room. Otherwise we will schedule an appointment and ask that you return, or you can shop and wait for a room.

We will hold dresses for you for one hour. If you do not return the dress will be returned to the racks.

You will find some gowns as low as $100 or below. The average range is $300 to $500. Our top-priced gowns are in the $600-plus range. We do not stock dresses over $700, though we are able to order them. Homecoming dresses are generally $50 to $250. We do have a clearance room where you find some great bargains.

All sales are final. We do not accept returns or exchanges.

Formal dresses normally are made to fit the perfect hourglass-style body, but most of us don’t have that body. Customers must realize that if a dress they love doesn’t fit them perfectly, alterations may be necessary. We don’t do alterations in-house but we have seamstresses we will refer.

In the store we carry an assortment of dresses from our numerous designers. We do not stock every size of every dress we have. Being a small, locally-owned business, we simply do not have the space or the budget to buy dresses in every size. We may just have one size of some styles and two to four sizes of other styles. If you love the dress and we don’t have your size, we will measure you to determine your size and will order it if the manufacturer has it in stock. Our online catalog will show you all the dresses we are able to get.

Generally about one week.

We charge a $20 flat rate to ship dresses that are ordered.

We have a nice selection of plus sizes. One of our designers, Sydney’s Closet, specializes in plus sizes.

Yes! We do our best to make sure no two girls wear the exact same dress to homecoming or prom. Once you buy a dress, we tag it with your school and ask that someone from the same school does not buy the same dress. We cannot guarantee this, however. It is possible, of course, that someone will buy the same dress elsewhere.

The business started as a dress rental business in the Lincoln basement of owner Lori. After a few months in the basement, Lori got her first storefront at Gateway mall and started renting and eventually selling dresses. In time the rental business was dropped and now it’s strictly sales. Lincoln Formal is truly a small, locally-owned business.