Fraternity formals sound like a fun time (and they are), but they come at a deadly price, a painted cooler. For all of us girls who lack the craftiness and knowledge it takes to make the perfect cooler, here's a few things I learned making my first cooler:

1. Sand your cooler until that thing is 100% smooth. You might think it's smooth enough, but no, sand it some more. Also if the cooler you bought has any indentations from logos, then your best bet is to spackle over it, and then sand over it again if there are any imperfections left behind from the spackle. Do not forget to prime your cooler; I recommend getting spray paint primer to make it easier (make sure it adheres to plastic.)

2. Ask your date what his favorite sports teams are, what his favorite beverages are, the formal theme, etc. Use these for ideas for the cooler, but if all else fails, pinterest. Pinterest will become your new best friend. Warning: Too much Pinterest can leave you with overwhelming feelings of inadequacies when looking at images such as the one below,

Yes, that's an actual cooler somebody made; I couldn't believe it either.

3. When it comes to the paint just buy the bare essentials, and you can mix the colors together later to save a couple of bucks.

4. Eventually you'll have to start the actual painting. Stencils are great for any writing that you may have to do on the color. If for some reason you can't find the right one, make a document and print it on construction paper, so you can cut it out to use it as a stencil. Also you can decoupage paper to the cooler with mod podge if you really struggling with free handing or the stencils.

5. Before pulling out the actual paint use pencil to mark where you're going to paint. Also purchase painter's tape for straight edges to reduce the amount of paint that goes outside of the lines. Make sure to buy smaller paintbrushes, so you can go back and fix mistakes.

6. Once you finish painting it, let the cooler dry, Then seal it evenly using a polyurethane sealer.

7. Fill the cooler with whatever you and your date want for the formal to come.

Hopefully, following these steps will make you produce the best cooler possible and reduce the amount tears and sweat that will most likely go into it. Good luck and have fun with it!