I had THE MOST FUN getting my first white dress for alpha initiation. We had less than 24 hours to buy white dresses, and at the time, there were 7 sororities all holding new member initiation the same night!
I went to 4 different stores with one of my new Alpha Sisters, Jenni, and we ran into so many girls we had met during recruitment, who now needed a white dress for their sorority. Jenni, who is really tiny, ended up getting a children's size 12 dress!!!
And my white dress later saw 3 ADPi ceremonies, a KD initiation and a Tri-Delta initation. (UCF is very Panhellenic, and we're all good friends in the chapters--- and man, if that dress could talk, it would be a Panhellenic Ritual Bomb!)
PS: I forgot to mention that the dress ended up in the closet of an Alpha Xi who wore it for her initation and later passed it her little sis!
PPS: I went to ADPi convention this summer and needed a white dress. I'm an IO, so I wanted to look nice and spent $50 on a dress from Macy's... A week before I was to leave for convention, I was wandering through Ross, and lo and behold! MY $50 dress was hanging on the rack for $10! It was a travesty! I am now a slave to discount department stores. I've been very happy with my DKNY, Ralph Lauren and BCBG finds! I am loud and proud to admit I am a label snob, but I'm also proud to share when I've hit a good bargain!!!!
And yes, I do shop at Target. But I'm also an Ann Taylor girl

Who says you can't have your cake and eat it, too?