A mum altered her old prom dress for her little girl to wear to her daddy and daughter dance.
Lexi Donelson, 26, was struggling for inspiration for her five-year-old daughter Sterling's dress for her annual dance - when she remembered she still had her own prom dress.
The mum-of-three had worn the turquoise dress to her prom in April 2012 with her high school sweetheart, Dewey, 26, a rancher.
Lexi "adored" the dress and often put it on for fun and was praised by Sterling who called it her "Elsa dress".
With the help of her mum, Karena Logan, 48, a retired accountant, the pair managed to shorten and slim down the dress to fit little Sterling for her dance in February 2023.
Sterling was "very excited" to wear the dress and still puts it on constantly.
Lexi, a stay-at-home-mum, from Ponca City, Oklahoma, US, said: “It looked adorable on her.
“She didn’t want to take it off.
“When she was younger, I would try it on, and she’d call it my Elsa dress.
“Now she says ‘it’s my Elsa dress’.
“I get very emotional thinking about that moment.”
Lexi wore the gown to her prom aged 15 with her date Dewey in April 2012.
The couple had started dating a couple of months prior but had met aged 10 as they had been in the same class at school.
They married in July 2016 and have three children together – Bear, six, Sterling, five, and SJ, two.
Lexi said: “I was shopping for a dress for Sterling, but I couldn’t find one I was crazy about.
“I saw one similar to my prom dress and I just had the idea – why don’t I alter mine?
“I called my mum, and we worked out how to do it.”
Lexi and Karena played around with the dress trying to rearrange it before cutting the tulle at the bottom to shorten the dress and tightening the chest to make it smaller.
The pair spend around two hours altering the dress before Lexi was happy with it.
She said: “When I first told Sterling before it was altered, I said: ‘This is going to be your dress now.’
“She was really confused.
“But she was excited once we started cutting and sewing.
“She tried it on, and she didn’t want to take it off.
“I had to say, 'you can’t wear it before the special dance and after you can wear it every day'.”
Both Lexi and Dewey feel strongly about the importance of the ‘daddy and daughter dance’.
Lexi said: “We both see the importance of it.
“Seeing them and remembering our prom I couldn’t imagine he would be such an amazing dad.
“He woke up early and went to get her flowers and a teddy bear.”
Lexi snapped pictures of Sterling and Dewey in their outfits before the dance and gets “emotional” thinking about the moment.
Now Sterling wears the dress so much the straps have “popped off”.
Lexi is so happy her mum kept hold of her old clothes and has her following years prom dress – a mermaid style gown.
Lexi said: “My mum is very sentimental and kept everything.
“I have another dress from prom that she can wear for her prom or whatever she wants.”
