Images is at 103 Market Street East, on the historic downtown square in Fayetteville, the seat of Lincoln County in southern Middle Tennessee. The shop has been open since 2006 and is run by Mark, Wendy and Rebecca Collins. It sells prom and pageant gowns and rents and sells tuxedos and suits, so both halves of a prom couple can be handled in one stop — useful in a county where the alternative is two separate drives.
Two verified labels on the gown side: Ava Presley and Johnathan Kayne, both of which list Images on their official retailer locators. Johnathan Kayne is a pageant-heavy line, which fits a town whose September fair runs a full pageant ladder — Tiny Miss at ages 2 to 4 on up through Miss Teen, whose rules require contestants aged 14 to 16 to compete in a floor-length dress. On the menswear side, Images is a Jim’s Formal Wear affiliate for rentals. Staff will size and special-order a dress that isn’t on the floor, and the shop also carries jewelry, shoes and shapewear.
What an appointment actually looks like
Images prefers appointments and takes walk-ins. Booking is by phone or through the shop’s online scheduler. Two rules are worth knowing before you load the car:
- Your group is capped at the shopper plus four guests — five people total.
- Six gowns per appointment for try-on. Come with a shortlist rather than a plan to work the whole rack.
How paying works
Layaway is spelled out on the store’s policy page: 30 percent down (accessories can be included in the total), the balance due within 90 days or before your event, whichever comes first, with a payment every 30 days. A missed monthly payment adds a $10 fee. The deposit is non-refundable, and if the balance isn’t cleared in time the gown goes back on the floor.
Two other things to plan around. All sales are final — no returns, no exchanges, no store credit. And since October 2021 there has been a 3.5 percent convenience fee on credit card payments, added after tax. Images also no longer takes gowns on consignment, so don’t bring last year’s dress hoping to trade down the cost of this year’s.
Who drives in
Lincoln County High School, out on Huntsville Highway, enrolls roughly 1,200 students in grades 9 through 12; Fayetteville High School, run by the separate city district, has about 315. Between them that is most of the local prom business, and both are minutes from the square.
Past that, the geography runs south. US 231/431 leaves Fayetteville and crosses the state line near Hazel Green, putting Huntsville about 30 miles and 40 minutes away — close enough that north Alabama families come up as easily as Lincoln County families go down. Going west, Pulaski is 29 miles on US 64 and has a formal shop of its own. For anyone in Fayetteville, Petersburg or Flintville, Images is the option that doesn’t involve leaving the county.
One scheduling note: the Slawburger Festival takes over the downtown square on a Saturday in mid-April, right in the thick of prom season. Parking near Market Street is not normal that day.