Mess Dress Cost?

[Woodsy]

Looking for a general idea of what a full men's mess dress set, with all the required bling and attachments will cost?  Also, any sources other than AAFES for the clothing items?  I know Vanguard stocks that attachments... 

[MSG Mac]

I saw a basic set of Mess Dress at the Air Force thrift shop for $55 last week.

[PHall]

If you brought everything brand new from Vanguard and AAFES you're probably looking at $300 - 400, depending on how many medals you have.

[C/Awesomenesss]

 I got mine free from my squadron.

[THRAWN]

I got mine free from my squadron.

Since you're a cadet, you have no need for a mess dress. Give it back.

[HGjunkie]

You sure that wasn't a service coat with 3/4 buttons?

[AlphaSigOU]

Straight outta the AAFES online catalog:

Men's Mess Dress Jacket: $174.95
Men's Mess Dress Trousers: $73.95
Men's Formal White Shirt: $35.50
Satin Banded Bow Tie: $4.45
Satin Clip-On Bow Tie: $3.70
Button Suspenders: $11.10
Clip-on Suspenders: $9.00
Men's Cummerbund: $13.15
Cufflink and Stud Set: $29.90

And we don't wanna leave out the ladies...

Women's Mess Dress Jacket: $168.95
Women's Mess Dress Skirt: $67.00
Women's Mess Dress Formal White Shirt: $35.50
Mess Dress Necktab: $6.95
Women's Adjustable Cummerbund: $13.15
Cufflink and Stud Set: same as men's

Not included in the above list: tailoring (the jacket includes a narrow strip of material for the tailor to make loops for the shoulder boards and silver sleeve braid; you will need to replace the silver with the dark blue sleeve braid in the service dress jacket. I forgot how much the tailoring cost.

Shoes: standard issue black lesther, poromerics (Corfams) or patent leather. Ladies wear pumps in black leather, poromeric or patent leather. (Though it's customary to wear poromeric or patent leather with mess dress.)

CAP mess dress shoulderboards: vary in price. Women's mess dress shoulderboards do not have the button on top.
'Dinner plate' shield: varies in price whether bullion or metal
Insignia and miniature medals: vary in price. Remember that if you wear the bullion dinner plate, you should have your wings and specialty insignia in bullion as well.

[Storm Chaser]

I own a mess dress uniform, but I'm yet to wear it to a CAP function. I was looking into ordering all the required accoutrements from Vanguard and I would have to pay over $150 for shoulder boards, medals and CAP seal alone. This for a uniform I would wear maybe once a year, if that. I may buy the required mess dress accoutrements when I can get a better ROI. For now, I'll stick to the service dress uniform.

[TankerT]

If you are not in a hurry, set up ebay searches.  You can even find CAP shoulder boards on ebay once and a while.  And, you'll get an e-mail when the search matches a new item.

I have bought a few on ebay for under $60.  The expenses tend to come with the shoulder boards, and your mini-medals.

Women's mess dress uniforms are a bit tougher to find, and tend to bid a little higher.

[Stonewall]

I've been to a lot of "formal" functions in CAP over the past 26 years and have never worn anything other than service dress.  I don't even have mess dress for the Air Force.

I'm going to a wing conference in April and I'm considering wearing the Air Force semi formal option instead of CAP service dress.

[Fubar]

I'm going to a wing conference in April and I'm considering wearing the Air Force semi formal option instead of CAP service dress.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but if you attend a CAP function, shouldn't you wear a CAP uniform?

[Storm Chaser]

I'm going to a wing conference in April and I'm considering wearing the Air Force semi formal option instead of CAP service dress.

The current Air Force semi-formal uniform doesn't look nearly as formal with the tie as the old one did with the bow tie. I would just wear the CAP service dress instead.

[ol'fido]

I gave my mess dress to my cousin last year when he got called to active duty out of ROTC at Purdue. Gave him most of the stuff to go with it. All he had to do was buy his medals, shoulder boards, and the seal badge. I did that after seeing one of his other newly commissioned buddies bragging about scoring one for $150 on FB. I wasn't out a lot of money for mine anyway. Our previous wing commander gave it to me when he decided to get a new one.

[mdickinson]

Got mine for $35 at the thrift shop of McGuire AFB during Region Staff College years ago.

As pointed out by others, you can score the jacket and pants for $30-$75 at a thrift shop or ebay if you're patient.
(Setting up an eBay search that will email you next time someone posts the thing you are looking for is a valuable skill. I have used it to great effect over the years.)

In either case, assuming the previous owner was not a CAP member, you have to buy blue sleeve braid from Vanguard and pay a tailor to put it on the sleeves.

For shoulderboards, make friends with a mess-dress-wearing member from your area who is about to be promoted. or use ebay. Another trick I used over the years is that once you own a set of the shoulderboards, you can save some bucks buy buying only the embroidered bullion symbol for your next grade. Last time I bought a pair of these, they were only $8. You can then peel off the captains bars and glue on (using fabric glue) the oak leaf when you need it.  Just use caution because the male and female shoulderboards use different size grade symbols! I knew a guy who had female oak leaves glued to his shoulderboards and they did look kinda small.

If you go the budget route described above, the medals are the biggest cost.  I don't have any money saving ideas when it comes to those, other than approaching someone who quits CAP altogether and trying to strike a deal.

The one medal tip I have is that there are special racks, similar to ribbon racks but with much bigger space in between rows, designed specifically for mini medals. The model you want is the number of medals you have, with "MM" after., e.g. "3MM" or "12MM". I bet Vanguard carries them.