$27,000 for a castle? When it’s prom season in Philly, anything’s possible.

I’ll admit, I have low-key judged parents who went all out for a high school prom. To me, it seems like a waste of money that should be better spent on education. My parents felt the same way: They sent me and my siblings to private school, so when it came time for prom, my sisters wore my old dresses. We did our own makeup.

So it can be hard for me to relate to stories about parents who spent $16,000 on one child’s prom (like one local mom), or even way more.

But on Monday, I was scrolling through Instagram and saw a prom send-off that had my jaw hanging.

The theme was Cinderella and looked more like something out of a Hollywood movie set than out of West Philly. Treva Harris, 47, paid workers to construct a magnificent, two-story castle in a parking lot in the 4900 block of Lancaster Avenue, decorated with real chandeliers, window treatments, white furniture, and carpeting for her daughter’s prom send-off. Harris owns a number of businesses (including Millionaire Minds Childcare Academy, which is adjacent to the lot), and told me the castle alone cost $27,500 and took workers about a month to build.

In a city where over-the-top prom send-offs — which are literally the party before a party — are a thing, this one really stood out.

A few hundred onlookers gathered for the send-off for Harris’ daughter, Azar, on Friday, which began with a short video Harris produced. In it, she portrayed a fairy godmother who waved her magic wand over her daughter, who is dressed in tattered clothing. Next, the screen door dramatically opened for the big reveal, and Azar walked out onto the flower-filled runway wearing a magnificent, champagne, strapless, satin ball gown with a deep jewel-trimmed neckline and a large bow on the back. It was like something you might see at New York City’s Met Gala. Confetti rained down as the crowd yelled and applauded.

Unlike some of what passes for prom attire these days, Azar’s look was age-appropriate and as beautiful as that of the first Black Cinderella, singer Brandy, in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella. That film will forever be iconic because of what it meant to African American girls who had never seen a Disney princess with brown skin.

Azar’s mom spared no expense, hiring Khadidra Muhammad, a Brooklyn-based event planner who has worked with singers Cardi B and Mary J. Blige, among other celebrities. “We had 20-foot tall drapes, we had carpet all over the flooring. We carpeted the sidewalk,” Muhammad told me, and “built 20-foot tall trees.”

Harris declined to share the total amount she spent on Azar’s send-off — including the flowers, dress, and catering — but judging from the video, it was a lot.

Still, as I watched and rewatched it, my soul applauded for “Princess Azar,” as her friends and relatives referred to her that day. This beautiful, honor roll student got to live out a fantasy of being a fairy tale princess, if only for a day. I was so excited and happy for her.

This Cinderella moment even forced me to soften my original position about extravagant prom send-offs. Yes, it was exorbitantly expensive, but what Harris created for her daughter last week is priceless. These special moments are particularly important for our girls, Harris wrote on social media. “Every girl deserves to be cherished and treated like royalty. When we shower our daughters with love and teach them their worth, they grow up knowing they deserve to be respected, valued and adored — and they won’t settle for anything less.”

What Harris created for her daughter is priceless.

Plus, Harris told me she can afford it. In addition to her day-care business, Harris has an MBA, is a real estate agent and investor, and operates a home health-care company, Back 2 Healthy Homecare.

Even so, she told me that if she had had to sell one of her residential properties to finance the entire thing, it would have been worth it. “When we become adults, life gets super hard,” Harris explained. “I do what I can do for [my kids] while they’re younger. When they get older, I don’t have so much control over their happiness. I have a little bit of control now. So I do everything in my power to make sure that my kids are happy.”

Granted, most parents can’t afford to go all out for a prom send-off. Nor should they. The vast majority of Philadelphians are better off saving their money for more important things. But if people have the means to throw an extravagant prom send-off, and already have important expenses like college costs figured out, then I’m not going to judge.

This wasn’t Harris’ first time being in the spotlight for her events. I wrote about her 2011 wedding, which cost more than $100,000 and also had a Cinderella theme. She went viral last year after she wrapped the side of a West Philly house she owns with a 30-foot image of her son for his prom. Across the street, Harris set up a black backdrop with carpeting and lavish orange floral displays. Muhammad worked on that project, too.

Not everyone is a fan, though. “A lot of people were like, ‘Why would you do it with a bunch of rowhouses in the hood? And why are you spending so much money doing this?’” recalled Muhammad, whose firm is Priceless Event Planning. She added that many of the events she curates — including weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs — include extravagance, but people have more negative responses when the host is Black. “Any time it’s something for us, it’s like, ‘Why are they doing it?’ which is very sad.”