Formals are often the highlight of Greek life—getting dressed up with your friends, inviting your crush, and having a night to remember. However, no matter how perfect your plans for the night are, there is always a chance that unforeseen circumstances can take your night from great to a downright disaster. Here are the top 9 reasons that I believe are most responsible for ruining a perfectly good formal.
You think things are going great, you’re tossing ‘em back, then you get off the bus and…whoa. If you can hold it together, you spend the first part of the night trying to stop yourself from vomming all over your set-up. If you can’t, you create a mess that you’ll only remember when you wake up to an email from Standards summoning you to J-board.
YOUR DATE GETS TOO DRUNK
Same situation, except you are likely to get someone else’s puke on you instead of your own. And you spend all night supporting his full body weight.
YOU WAKE UP AND YOUR HAIR IS LIKE….UGH
Maybe not everyone feels this way, but if my hair is not on point I simply can’t enjoy my night. So if you wake up after your pre-pre-game nap and have a hornet’s nest going on, it absolutely can result in a ruined formal.
YOU GET TOO SOBER
If your first thought when you enter the venue is “Gross”, you’re probably too sober to be there. Formals are well known to be just disgusting to the sober eye. An event that “drunk-you” saw as ‘Midnight in Paris’ could be seen by “sober-you” as a bunch of couples sloppily making out to bar mitzvah music.
YOUR DATE GETS TOO SOBER
I think we have all been in the situation where you realize you are much drunker than the person you’re with, and realize that when you inevitably embarrass yourself, your date will both see and remember it. This is okay if your date is your boyfriend, because let’s be honest, he’s seen worse, but if it is a casual thing you will likely spend your night apologizing instead of tearing up the dance floor.
YOU WENT WAY TOO HARD THE NIGHT BEFORE
"If you're going to hoot with the owls at night, you better be able to soar with the eagles in the morning." This has never been as true as it is the night before a formal. If the night before leaves you driving on the bus to formal still wanting to gag just thinking about alcohol, you’ve set yourself up for a failure.
YOUR HEELS ARE TOO HIGH
This should be a no brainer, but this is a reoccurring serious problem at formals. There is always one girl who wildly misjudges her ability to prance around like a baby giraffe on those 6-inch heels. Best-case scenario is the worst blisters of your life. Worst case is a broken ankle. Know your limits, and don’t be that girl!
YOUR DATE DECIDES TO DRESS LIKE SOMEONE FROM MIAMI VICE
It’s really too bad that you can’t vet your date’s outfit like you can vet your date. Formals are really all about the pictures, and it’s hard to look hot next to a grown man in white skinny jeans, or a baby blue jacket. Or, if you know how to pick ‘em like I do, both. No choice but to untag.
THE VENUE IS TOO SMALL
This is an important item on my list because it can be the absolute worst thing about a formal. Combining heavy sweating and unwanted touching, a tiny venue can turn a classy formal into a mosh pit. Makeup running, ankles twisting, and a gym locker smell. The nightmare formal. And you don’t even have the space to get you groove on.
YOUR DATE SPENDS THE WHOLE NIGHT WITH SOME OTHER GIRL
Ugh, this is just the worst. Bringing a date to formal should imply that you receive maximum attention from him, but sometimes the ultimate ego killer ensues: He spends the whole night making eyes at another girl. This unfortunate event is usually a one way ticket to a night spent crying in the restroom, and a horrible formal experience
