Spring Saturdays on North Main Street get busy, and The Copper Penny of London has written down exactly how it handles the line. Its Prom FAQ lays out a dressing-room system in detail, and the core of it fits in two sentences.
Once you have tried on your 4 dresses, you will exit the dressing room to rotate the next person in line to keep the traffic flow moving. You may step back into the line when you have your next 4!
Read that as a promise of fairness. Nobody hogs a room for an hour, and the girl who walked in at noon gets the same shot at the racks as the one who arrived at opening. The shop's tagline is "Where Kentucky Comes to Dress Its Best," and the rules show a store built to move a lot of prom shoppers through on the busiest days in southeastern Kentucky.
A prom trip to the Copper Penny
Prom appointments are now available for a more one-on-one experience, but they are not required during regular store hours. Walk-ins are served first come, first serve, in an order pulled from the store's own rules.
A walk-in prom visit, step by step (a guide)
First
Let a staff member walk you through the floor layout
Next
Pull up to four dresses, and only four, for the dressing room
Then
Step into line with those four and wait to be shown to a room
In the room
Let staff do all the zipping and lacing, and step into each gown rather than pulling it over your head
Last
Try on, eliminate, exit, and rejoin the line with the next four
A few house rules go with it. Only one girl is in a dressing room at a time, swapping dresses with friends in the rooms is not allowed, and the seating area holds one or two people per prom shopper, so leave the big entourage at home. Clean hands and care with makeup and spray tans are on the list, too. The store also does not hold dresses for customers to come back for later, which makes the first visit count.
Hours stretch during peak prom season, according to the store's posted schedule, which helps families driving in after school or work.
The labels and the registry
The prom menu is organized by designer. Sherri Hill, Jovani, Ashley Lauren, Portia & Scarlett and Amarra each have their own prom page, and most of them show up again under homecoming. Ashley Lauren and Portia & Scarlett also anchor the evening section.
Pageant is a serious second focus. The pageant department carries gowns from Ashley Lauren, Jovani, Portia & Scarlett and Amarra, plus the pieces pageant girls actually need beyond the stage gown: interview attire, jumpsuits and rompers, tweed dresses, and capes and overskirts. There is a TCP Kids section for younger girls as well.
The dress registry is the policy most prom shoppers will care about.
The store is open about the limits: the same gown could still show up at that prom in a different color, the registry only tracks The Copper Penny's own sales, and it resets every season. For students at North Laurel and South Laurel, the two big high schools in town, that color-by-school check is a real comfort.
Paying for the dress
The money side is spelled out just as clearly as the dressing-room rules.
Sales are final, with no returns, exchanges or refunds, and the store asks shoppers to examine a gown carefully before buying. Layaway is available on prom dresses, on a fixed schedule.
Day of purchase
Put 35 percent down
Within 90 days
Pay the balance; a monthly storage fee applies if a layaway runs past 90 days
At least 14 days before the event
Pick up the dress
Special orders, for a size or color the store does not have on hand, require payment in full up front, and the size and color cannot be changed once the order is placed.
Alterations are handled outside the shop. The Copper Penny does not have an in-house seamstress, but staff can share contact information for several local seamstresses and offer suggestions on how a particular gown is usually altered. Build that step into the timeline, especially for a special-order dress that needs to be picked up two weeks out.
For the other half of the prom couple, the TCP Guys page covers tuxedo rentals and modern formalwear through Jim's Formalwear and Geno's Formalwear, with personalized fittings from the store's team. Bridal runs by appointment only, on its own separate track.
Shoppers come from well beyond Laurel County. London sits on I-75, and families from Rockcastle County to the north and Clay County to the east have an interstate or parkway route into town.
Prom at The Copper Penny: quick answers
Will someone else at my prom have the same dress?
The store registers prom dresses by color per school, and it will not complete a sale of the same dress in the same color to a second girl attending that school's prom. A different color of the same style is still possible.
Can I put a prom dress on layaway?
Yes. The layaway plan takes 35 percent down, with the balance due within 90 days and pickup at least 14 days before the event.