This time of year, also known as sorority rush season, social media is absolutely saturated with content from current and hopeful members who are currently going through the recruitment process. While the University of Alabama gets a lot of credit for the rise of #rushtok, colleges across the country are joining in on the cultural phenomenon. Most recently, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville caught the internet’s attention despite focusing on something other than its students. A recent Instagram video from Presley Paige, an event planning and party supply store, went viral after they showed off the incredible balloon sculptures designed specifically for the Bid Day festivities.
Maggie Owens, owner of Presley Paige, explains that her store’s journey began with the creation of these extraordinary decorations in 2021 for the local Tri Delta house. It quickly snowballed, leading to them delivering these creations to five different houses in 2022, six in 2023, and a total of eight of the 12 chapters on campus in 2024.
As you can see in the video above, these are no ordinary balloon sculptures or creations. “For most chapters, it’s a process of about eight to 10 months from the first meeting to proposal day, but we’ve seen others rush things or come in late, condensing months of planning into 90 days,” Owens says House beautiful“Every year we aim to complete 90 percent of the planning by April. Then our team spends the months of May to August on inventory and logistics.”
While Owens and her team are the driving forces behind each design, the sororities definitely have a creative say. “Each chapter is unique in its style, inspiration, and vision,” Owens says. “We work hand-in-hand with the elected members and often their advisors to come up with a theme and/or find creative ways to execute an idea they’ve shared with us.” She goes on to explain that they spend a lot of time figuring out what exactly they want to do for each house, using the color of the house, accessibility for installation, current trends, and past examples as inspiration. Though they’re conveniently located near the University of Arkansas, the company has created some decorations and offered consulting for chapters across the country—most recently at the University of Texas and Texas A&M.
If you are wondering how much it costs to book one of their balloon installations, we would say start your budget at $15,000 at the least. According to this page on their website, their custom balloon garlands cost $25 per foot and their custom sculptures start at $125. In the Instagram post below, their caption states that they used 4,000 feet of balloons in total, and that’s not including the larger, sculptural ones or the additional accessories. As one of the commenters on their viral post wrote, “These sororities have BUDGETS.”
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