The Residence Hall Association of Saint Mary’s College revealed the theme for the 2026 Saint Mary’s formal on Thursday. The reveal event debuted the “Once Upon a Belle” theme alongside matching novelty sweaters for students to purchase on the student center’s second floor. At the reveal, students enjoyed sweet treats, a themed scavenger hunt and a zip-up sweater giveaway. The formal will take place on Saturday, April 10 at the Gillespie Conference Center.
Leading the project was senior Bella Perry, now in her second term as RHA president, who utilized her years of experience working alongside RHA vice president Destiny Magaña-Stokes.
“This will be my third Saint Mary’s formal that I get to attend, and we really start planning pretty much almost as soon as the one from the previous year concludes. You know, last year we started doing zip-ups, and so we’re going to do those again this year with this year’s formal theme, which we are excited to continue,” Perry said.
RHA hosts the campus’s only formal, and so it has high standards for the event. This year features slight changes in operations, including regarding one of the most important parts of the event, the party buses.
“We’ll also be having party buses this year that will pick up residents from their halls, but we’re changing the route of the party buses. One [is] actually designated only to go from Le Mans to the Gillespie because there’s so many girls in there, and even people who maybe don’t live there go there to take pictures. We’re hoping to have a direct route from Le Mans to the Gillespie that will have a quicker turnaround and won’t have people waiting,” Perry said.
The ticket distribution system has also been modified.
“Last year was our first year putting the ticket sales online. So yes, we were experiencing a bit of a learning curve, but we felt it was a necessary transition. And the difference this year also is that the start of ticket sales won’t be at formal reveal. They will actually be on March 1, at Battle of the Belles,” Perry said.
“We do just want to know that if there are any issues that arise from ticket sales ... please contact the Residence Hall Association email and the Residence Hall Association email only,” Magaña-Stokes added.
Tickets, merchandise and party buses aren’t the only logistical challenges facing the organizers. Board members Lorelei Ludwig, a freshman, and juniors Kayla Pleiness and Daniela Rivera provided insights on how everything comes together.
“So the venue is always the same. It’s always with Gillespie … the theme process is a whole thing. This year we did it totally differently. We — Daniela and I — came in with a couple ideas that we really liked, and then our president and vice president asked the board to come up with ideas as well,” Pleiness said.
Rivera added that the formal is the result of collaboration not only between members of the RHA board, but with the rest of the Saint Mary’s community as well. She said RHA is hoping to appeal to the desires of students by adapting based on the feedback from past formals.
“Considering voices, students and ideas, I took kind of a different spin on the committee this year. I feel like we had a lot more participation this year than we have in the past. And honestly, that makes me really, really happy to see how people want to be involved,” Rivera said.
When it came to merchandise and design, Ludwig took creative control. She said the process of creating new merch was inspired heavily by previous years, but with a new spin to match the theme, “Once Upon a Belle.”
“Everyone had looked at it probably 2,000 times, and then we had a few hiccups with, like the color of the merchandise and what we could get supplied to us. So that was kind of crazy, but we’re really excited. We’re really happy with the final product, and we’re excited for everyone to see it perfect,” Ludwig said.
Tickets go on sale Sunday, March 1 at The Battle of the Belles pep rally event, hosted by the RHA.
