Two showrooms. One shopping center. Thousands of dresses. Ashley Rene's occupies a pair of storefronts in Heritage Square, the Granger shopping center a few minutes off Exit 83 of the Indiana Toll Road, and its own pages name it the largest prom and pageant boutique in the state. The main floor is Ashley Rene's Prom and Pageant. Next door, Ashley Rene's Couture handles the high-end and custom gowns. Together they cover more than 8,000 square feet.
Ashley and her staff have been at this since at least 2001; the store's About page puts its experience at over 25 years. In that time the shop has earned a place among the Top 10 prom stores in the country, and it is the exclusive Sherri Hill Couture retailer in Indiana. Those are the store's own claims, and they explain why families from Michigan, Illinois and Ohio show up in the dressing rooms alongside girls from all over northern Indiana.
What hangs on the racks
The prom side runs deep. The store keeps more than 2,000 dresses in stock year round and pushes past 2,500 at the height of the season, with sizes 000 through 26 on the floor and special orders up to a size 30 from select designers. Hundreds of the gowns are in-store exclusives that never appear on the website, which is a good reason to make the drive rather than shop from a phone. The designers the store names on its site include:
- Sherri Hill, including the couture and demi-couture lines
- ASHLEYlauren
- Jovani
- Ava Presley
- Ellie Wilde
- Johnathan Kayne
- Portia & Scarlett
- Primavera
- Rachel Allan, for both prom and homecoming
- Tarik Ediz
Shoppers can also browse the floor by mood instead of label. The website sorts gowns into ballgowns, corset styles, feathers, fringe, pearls, velvet, two-piece and cutout sets, short dresses and a "Budget Friendly" group, and the store floor follows a similar logic. A shoe and jewelry department sits inside the shop, so the heels and earrings can be settled before anyone leaves the building.
Pricing is posted openly. Regular-price prom dresses start around $350, and most of what sells in the store lands between $450 and $600. The Budget Friendly collection runs from $299 to $498, and the sale rack starts at $99. Because Ashley Rene's is an authorized retailer, it sells at the designers' set prices, and the FAQ warns shoppers about knockoff websites that lift store photos to sell imitation gowns.
New lines start arriving in December, and the FAQ is unusually specific about how the stock moves through the winter.
We always have over 2000 dresses in our store year round. We receive shipments of new prom dresses daily during the months of December, January, February, and March.
By January, the store says, every new line for the season is on hand. That is the window to aim for, especially for anyone set on a specific Sherri Hill or Jovani style in a specific color.
Appointments, travel and the pageant side
Ashley Rene's has required appointments for all shopping since March 2020. Bookings go through email, a stylist is assigned to each shopper, and the appointment blocks out a dedicated hour of try-ons. The store will fit in walk-ins when its schedule allows, but during peak season the wait can stretch to one or two hours, and walk-ins get limited dressing room time. Booking ahead is the smoother route, particularly for families driving in from Chicago, who should remember that Granger runs on Eastern time, an hour ahead of the city.
The location helps out-of-town shoppers. South Bend International Airport is less than 10 miles away, the University Park Mall area is close by, and the Notre Dame campus is under five miles from the door, so plenty of visiting families pair a dress appointment with a campus tour. Heritage Square itself has restaurants and coffee within walking distance of the shop.
Pageant work is the other pillar here. The Pageant Planet named Ashley Rene's the top pageant store in the country for 2017, 2020 and 2022, and the shop serves as the official national wardrobe sponsor of National American Miss and International Junior Miss, plus a long list of state titles. For a prom shopper, that pageant pedigree shows up as staff who are used to fitting gowns for a stage and know how a dress moves under lights.
The main draw for local families is still prom. Students from Penn High School, the Penn-Harris-Madison school that serves Granger, shop here, as do girls from Mishawaka High School, Marian High School, Saint Joseph High School and Adams High School in South Bend. Elkhart High School and Concord sit to the east, and Edwardsburg is just across the Michigan line.
Before booking at Ashley Rene's
How does layaway work for a prom gown?
The store runs a free layaway program for dresses currently in stock. It takes 50 percent down, then a payment every 30 days, with up to 90 days to finish. Special orders are not eligible, and all sales are final once a size is chosen.
Does the shop alter dresses?
Alterations are handled by a handful of local seamstresses the store works with and recommends to its customers. Budget for some alteration cost on almost any gown.
Will the store register my dress to my school?
No. Ashley Rene's stopped registering dresses in January 2019 because online sales made it impossible to control. Its answer to duplicates is the stock of exclusive and one-of-a-kind gowns that are only sold in the store.