First piece of advice: Go for a little road trip with your mum. Check out the options. Find out what your budget is and what your parents expect. Remember: in addition to the dress (or tux), there's the actual tickets, boutonniere/corsage, shoes possibly, and accessories.
Second piece of advice: If you have huge feet like me (I'm an 11. I kid you not) or a piece of family jewelry you want to wear to Prom, you should find the dress to match those items - bring them with you or bring pictures of them to show the salesperson.
With those things in mind, I suggest you head to a mall to shop with your friends. Malls are full of a variety of stores. They usually have a Macy's, Lord & Taylor and/or JCPenney -- all of which ship in 'occasion' (prom) dresses. A tip about the department store dress: someone else will likely have that gown. Maybe even in that colour.
The last two days, my friend who is attending Prom for the first time this year and myself have had no school so we headed to a nearby mall with our mums. Since I have a dress, the focus was on her. On the way there, I asked her to describe what she's looking for. Every girl has some aspect of their dress picked out somehow. They've seen it in a magazine or on TV or they had a dream about it. One girl I knew wanted her party dress based on a Barbie she'd had 10+ years ago.
When we arrived, we explored a variety of colours to find out what palette best fitted her complexion. We also tested a variety of lengths to find out which was the most comfortable and appropriate. Our mums were a great help because they could do zippers. My friend's mum did her zippers for her which makes it less awkward if you're a very modest person. After a while, we were choosing dresses for each other to try on. That was a very lively, memorable experience. One of the great things about going to try out dresses with friends is that they will push you outside your comfort zone to try on something you wouldn't normally ever remotely consider. Plus, not every dress you try on has to actually be a viable consideration.
Each time my friend came out of the dressing room, my mum and I made her 'road test' the dress. You don't buy a car without driving it. It's the same thing: you don't buy a prom dress without dancing in it. If you can't dance in the dress at the store, it's going to be a nightmare Prom - which is a dance, some people forget. Another tip: Bring a camera or a cellphone camera with you. Don't buy a dress the first day. Sleep on it, consider the photos, talk it over with your parents. Personally, I do wish I'd had a camera when I went with my family. I remembered one when I went with my friend and we had a blast going through the pictures later.
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