Formal Theme, suggestions?
 

Hey guys! It's been awhile since I've been on here, but I'm back because I need a little bit of help. I'm not the Social Director, but I am on the committee to help plan Spring Formal and the Director asked us to come up with a list of themes to go with her plans and ideas.

So, we're having our Formal at an art gallery in our city's old-fashioned downtown area. We're going to have some form a live entertainment (haven't figured out which route we want to take with that, the overall theme will probably decide it), modern artwork out on display for the night, and we are also going to have a nice sit down dinner, so instead of buffet style that has been done in the past there will be people serving us our food. I love the idea and can't wait for Formal, but we're having trouble thinking of actual Themes or Titles for the event. So, I just thought I'd come here and ask some of y'all what you thought. :P I had looked around for some ideas that may have been done in the past with this idea, but the most I came up with were birthday parties for little kids, which is obviously far from what we're looking for, haha.

Thanks. :D

A Touch of Class? Super simple I know, but it doesn't pay to get too complicated with this kind of stuff.

Impressions of XYZ


An XYZ Renaissance


Classic XYZ


The Art and Soul of XYZ



Or you could also go with famous paintings:

Starry Night
Girls With Pearl Earrings (works if the Pearls are one of your jewels)
XYZ's Angels

XYZ Spring Formal 2011.

You're welcome for this fantastic idea.

You change the formal theme? Why? KISS. Leave it the same every year. This ain't high school prom.

We always had "named" formals that were the same every year: In the fall, "Beaux and Arrows," in the winter "Wine Carnation Ball" (always informally known as "Pledge Formal" since it was the first formal for new members). We also had My Tie in the fall and Spring Formal. The names were mostly for T-Shirts and to keep them straight. There were no themes, I don't know anyone on our campus who had themed formals. Themes = mixer = silly.

Our school itself had a MAJOR MAJOR schoolwide event called Fancy Dress, which always had a theme, but they were super specific (Studio 54, 100th Annual: Black & White Masquerade, Alice in Wonderland, A Dark Knight) and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and man-hours to put together. And most people didn't really care about the theme, except for how it pertained to what the complimentary shot-glass slogan was that year ("Decor Tonight, Detox Tomorrow," "100 Years, 100 Proof," "Down the Rabbit Hole," "Why So Serious?").

My point is that formals are all about dates and drinking and dancing and dresses, any theme is entirely unnecessary. Just call it the "Whatever" ball/formal and make the name a tradition. It's all you need.

This is exactly what I was going to suggest.

You're having this lovely event, at this wonderful location.. why complicate matters by having a theme? No one will remember the theme you picked, anyway (and quite frankly, your dates won't care - they're guys)... they'll only remember the great time they had.

Very true.

Yeah, I'd go either with "Spring Formal" or, since it looks like a (red?) diamond might be one of your symbols, something that can be a tradition itself, like the Red Diamond Ball.

This made me think of the prom theme fiasco in "Never Been Kissed."

Honestly, I don't know any girls who cared about themes for formals. But I think we didn't have themes either, we had Presents and um... "Spring Formal?" I think we had a name for it but it didn't change every year, I just suck at remembering it.

We had Violet Ball. Then one year two fraternity dates got a little too drunk and got into an altercation at the dance. After than it became informally known as Violent Brawl. :-)

I was leaning Violet Ball for ours, but i'm just not 100%.

I really think it's so we have something to write on our shirts, haha. It's just a title really, not so much a theme. Like last year we had a fun formal where we sent to a place that has bowling, putt-putt, laser tag, and an arcade and it was called "The After Party." Not really a theme, but it was something that defined the night.

Thanks for the suggestions. It cleared my mind a little, haha. Also, one of the fraternities had their Formal this weekend and I dunno what they did at their Formal but it was called "Water, not Ice". So, there's an example I guess.

I think you already have a theme in front of your eyes: "art and dinner"

Masterpiece