Fall is the season that has the ability to bring an entire school together… Greeks, non-Greeks, alumni, professors, hometown families. No matter who you are, everyone comes out in the fall to watch football. Whether your team rocks (Go, Frogs!) or your team couldn’t throw a football if the school’s future depended upon it, there is no doubt that fall semester is a crowd favorite. 

Spring semester, on the other hand, always seems to be a bit of a drag, probably because it follows a semester filled with consistent Saturday morning mimosas and tailgates. Although it doesn’t include blistering hot September mornings and everyone piling into the stadium together, spring semester means one thing for the Greek system: formal.

Spring brings more than pretty flowers and warm weather. These beautiful months are filled with fraternity and sorority formals. And, as we all know, formals prove that both the casual frat stars and the tired sorority girls in big t-shirts can clean up well. 

A weekend away with your best friends, a lot of alcohol, sunshine and formal wear.Honestly, I’ll be impressed if you can think of three things better than that.

Getting asked to formals is exciting, especially for girls at a small school like TCU where the men have a surplus of beautiful options to choose from. If you are one of the lucky chosen women, you have two things to worry about: making a cooler and finding a dress.

I’m a fashion merchandising major so if you’re looking for advice on how to make an amazing cooler, you will not find that here. I can, however, offer you tips on what to wear.

The goal is to wear an outfit that doesn’t break your bank -- or your ankles. The two worst feelings in the world are when you have a negative bank balance and when you find yourself out in a pair of shoes that hurt by the time you step out of the elevator. Mix those together, and you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Start in your friends’ closets. Everyone knows that girls don’t like to wear the same thing twice, so I advise you and your friends to each bring two or three dresses that you have worn a couple times and throw them in a pile. From there, try on everything that catches your eye until you find the dress that looks best on you.

If your friends don’t want to share with you, then go into your own closet and pull out a few old dresses. Again, try them on and pick your favorite. Once you have the dress, wrap it up and take it to a local boutique. You want to try it on in the store and accessorize it to make it look like a brand new dress. I’m talkin’ bold necklaces, earrings, bracelets and shoes that tie the dress together to create a look that only a trained employee could come up with.

If neither of those options work, I suggest finding a LBD somewhere and claiming black as your new signature color.

My advice for you guys out there is simple: wear a bowtie (Face it, you’re in the South.) and tell your date she looks beautiful, because both you and your date know she put a lot of work into looking that good for you. Oh, and if she makes you a cooler, compliment her on it. My Google search results tell me it’s a lengthy process.

The greatest thing about formals is that everyone gets a chance to go. Whether it is a local sorority formal or a weekend getaway fraternity formal, good times and great memories are ahead of you. So grab your closest group of brothers or sisters, plan an exciting weekend, and be thankful you went Greek.