Most dress stores that mention pageants keep a rack of leftover gowns near the back. This one is organized the way a competition day is organized. Its own site sorts pageant merchandise into evening gown, interview, and fun fashion/runway, with a separate kids’ division and custom-couture work for both adults and children. There is a second Instagram account for the pageant side alone. The store says its pageant stylists have more than ten years of combined experience at local, state and national competitions — that is the shop’s own claim, not an outside verification, but the way the inventory is split backs up that it is a real part of the business rather than a line of copy.
For a prom shopper, that matters in a practical way. A store buying for pageant customers buys heavy beadwork, structured bodices and full skirts, and those gowns end up on the prom floor too. The verified label list here is Jovani, Amarra, Ashley Lauren, Ava Presley, Alyce Paris and Colette — all brands that live in that same territory. Ashley Lauren prom gowns listed on the store’s own site run roughly $400 to $700, which is a fair marker for where this shop sits: not a clearance rack, not couture pricing.
Where it is
The address is 535 Lakeland Plaza, and the store’s own directions are more useful than a map pin: it is to the right of Sprouts. Lakeland Plaza is the large strip center at Buford Highway and Atlanta Highway, a few minutes off GA 400 in Forsyth County. It runs past 300,000 square feet, with Belk, Sprouts, Hobby Lobby and Texas Roadhouse in or around the same center, and an Uptown Cheapskate resale shop a few doors along if you want to compare a secondhand gown against a new one on the same trip. Parking is surface lot, not a mall deck.
Who shops here
Forsyth County Schools runs eight high schools, and most of them are within a short drive of this plaza:
- Forsyth Central, on Almon C. Hill Drive in Cumming — the closest of the group
- West Forsyth, on Drew Road, about 2,460 students
- South Forsyth, on Peachtree Parkway, about 2,510 students
- North Forsyth, on Coal Mountain Drive
- Lambert, in Suwanee, the county’s largest at roughly 3,250 students
- Denmark, with an Alpharetta address
- East Forsyth, out on Jot Em Down Road toward Gainesville, open since 2021
- Alliance Academy for Innovation, on Lanier 400 Parkway
Add Pinecrest Academy and Horizon Christian Academy on the private side. Eight or ten schools that size in one county means a lot of girls at one dance in one town, which is why the “who else bought this style” question is worth asking at the counter before you commit. The store also merchandises homecoming as its own season and had 2026 homecoming stock in store well ahead of fall.
The pageant calendar stretches the year out past prom. Miss Georgia’s Teen, the state’s Miss America’s Teen preliminary, is held each June in Columbus, and the Teen USA side runs on its own schedule — so a shop like this is fitting evening gowns in months when the prom-only stores are quiet.
Before you drive over
Two things to sort out by phone first. The store’s published hours contradict each other across its own pages — one page lists a Wednesday closure with Sunday afternoon hours, while the site footer shows Monday through Friday until 7 and no Sunday at all. The appointment policy is also inconsistent: some pages say no prom appointment is needed, the contact page says appointment only and no walk-ins. The number, (470) 297-7313, accepts text messages, which is the fastest way to settle both questions and to ask whether a specific style is on the floor. The store also lists a 533 Lakeland Plaza address in places; 535 is what its current pages use.