Formals are the ultimate collegiate social events. They give you a night out with all of your closest friends to a mysterious venue and an excuse to dress up. The anticipation of formals yields much excitement, but if you are in charge of your formal group’s plans, what should be fun planning sometimes transforms into unnecessary stress. The best formals nights are planned in advance. With so many formals each year, formal nights can become monotonous and repetitive, but if you organize your next formal ahead of time, you can spice it up and ensure that your evening is unique and memorable from the preparation to the actual event!
Getting Ready: First of all, you should attempt to avoid the formal fashion crises. You should pick out your dress at least a few days early because you do not want to spend the hours leading up to your formal going on an adventure under your bed to find that long lost heel you need. Have your stuff together so that you can just focus on having fun! And when the night of your formal finally arrives, have your girlfriends over to get ready together. Help each other with hair, makeup, and nails and enjoy being pampered and getting gorgeous! Make a getting-ready playlist with the potentially obnoxious songs that you and your friends are guilty of enjoying and get them out of your systems before the dates arrive.
Photos: When your dates arrive, be sure to take pictures. This is the time everyone still looks his or her best, so capture the moment! Don’t forget that you live on a gorgeous campus. Instead of taking pictures in front of the cinderblock white wall in your dorm’s hallway, why not stage them in front of one of Rhodes’s beautiful buildings, oak alley or fisher gardens? A scenic background will only accentuate your elegant formal attire!
Dinner: It is always fun to go out for dinner, but if you are in the mood for something a little more creative do a potluck kind of dinner with your formal group. Have everyone bring a dish and host the dinner at your apartment or house. This can ease the stress of making reservations for large groups and not lay all of the food responsibility on one person. To make sure the dishes complement one another, request that everyone follow a themed cuisine. Have a fiesta dinner or if you do want variety an all-around-the-world theme. If you get super into this you can even decorate your apartment appropriately.
Pregame: Sometimes a good pregame can beat the actual formal. If your guests are of drinking age, make delicious and pretty cocktails. Add garnishes with umbrellas or cherries and use cool glasses. Have regular drinks on standby in case somebody prefers something more simple. If you and your guests are not 21, then you can still do this with mocktails! An excellent pregame playlist is key. Alternate between hip hop, pop, and rock music, but do not play any slow or mellow tunes because formal is about exhilaration… not falling asleep. With the appropriate music, everyone will keep up their energy and become even more excited to get to the venue.
Buses: Be fashionably late, but don’t miss the bus all together. If you try to make the 11 o’clock bus, you will have plenty of time to enjoy the venue, but will not have to initiate the first dance on the dance floor. Participate in the cheers! They will be some of your favorite formal memories and do not forget to thank your bus driver!
Formal: Dance and have a blast. Befriend the DJ and make song requests, so that you can have impact on what songs will be played. If you take a date, don’t abandon him or her and remember you want your guest to have a great time! If you go on your own, still dance the night away! Plenty of people go to formal dateless and you have the plus of no pressure to keep up with your date the whole evening. Make sure to try to leave the venue before the last bus so you have a guaranteed ride home!
Post Formal: When formal is over, you can have an after-party in your room, go to a late night restaurant, or just get some well-deserved rest. If your date was awesome, a good way to show him or her that you had a fun time is to purchase a formal t-shirt for your date. Give the shirt to them and thank them for being a great date! You can also give them printed pictures of formal instead of just posting them on Facebook! Cherish the memories of your awesome night out and start brainstorming and looking forward to your next one!