When Sienna Long was accepted early to her dream school, the University of Miami, her mother, Melinda Long, began planning a surprise party to celebrate.
Not just any surprise party, though. In late January, the elder Ms. Long, 48, threw her 17-year-old daughter a “bed party,” a relatively new style of celebration that involves tricking out a college-bound senior’s bed with university merchandise, candy and just about anything else one can buy in a particular school’s colors.
She hung orange and green streamers from the ceiling and tacked a university-branded bikini on the wall above the headboard, alongside a university flag. She set up giant light-up letters — “UM” — bedside an inflatable palm tree and plenty of balloons. On the bed, she piled new sweatshirts, T-shirts, shorts and more swimwear, along with a pair of special edition Nike sneakers.
Altogether it cost about $2,000, she said.
Ms. Long’s posts about the party on TikTok have inspired strong reactions. While some parents have asked her for tips on how to throw their own collegiate fetes, others have voiced frustration with the lavish and costly trend.
“Some people are like, What are you, nuts, lady? You know, they’re not wrong,” Ms. Long said. “This is a $90,000 college, and it’s just a college acceptance. It’s not a wedding, it’s not a shower.” (She added that not everyone who throws a bed party needs to spend nearly as much as she did.)
Bed parties first became popular in the South, particularly for students going to large universities known for school spirit, said Tina LaMorte, who owns an events company in Maywood, N.J. Social media platforms like TikTok and Pinterest helped bring the trend to other parts of the country, particularly when the pandemic dampened other kinds of celebrations a few years ago.
“It really became something that was a bigger deal during Covid because people couldn’t really have graduation parties and they wanted to find some way to make something exciting for these kids who had so much taken away from them,” Ms. LaMorte said.
She planned almost a dozen bed parties for clients last year, she said, and she believe she could top that this year as the parties become more widespread. Her rates start at $1,000, which doesn’t cover the cost of the décor.
Some parents say the parties are practical.
“It’s really like an investment in their college experience,” said Monique Helms, whose daughter Remi will attend the University of Central Florida. “She’s going to use these things in college.”
Ms. Helms spent about $800 on her daughter’s event this month, which included the cost of two pairs of cowboy boots — one black and one gold, the school’s colors.
Sometimes, the parties are thrown by friends of the student who coordinate with families and bring decorations and presents.
In addition to the roughly $1,100 worth of supplies and gifts Simone Perez spent on her daughter Juliana’s bed party, her daughter’s friends also brought small gifts, including house slippers and University of Alabama apparel, she said.
In a Facebook group devoted to mothers discussing preparations for their children’s college dorm rooms, the bed parties are a regular subject of debate. Are the parties a fun way to mark a milestone or simply a showy display of wealth and overconsumption?
“I was hoping mine would look like what I’d seen on TikTok, or even look bigger,” said Nalla Hussain, an 18-year-old from Prosper, Texas, who plans to attend Texas Christian University. Her mother, Orlicia Hussain, said she spent around $2,000 but tried to focus on items, like a clothing rack, that her daughter could use right away at school.
“It’s an internet thing. They see it, they emulate it. They try to one-up it,” said Dave Moorhead, who threw a bed party for his daughter last year after she was admitted to the University of Michigan. (Sally Moorhead, Mr. Moorhead’s wife, is a member of the Facebook group.)
A graduate of the University of Michigan himself, Mr. Moorhead, who is 65 and lives in Rockville, Md., said he was glad he had already owned plenty of vintage college swag to bequeath to his daughter. The couple gave their daughter, who wanted to plan her own party, a budget of $200 and said they tried to be mindful about purchasing items that could be reused for future events, like their daughter’s graduation party, which they held later that year.
“The friend group — they all try to compete with the ones in their school or other schools they know nearby,” he added. “It becomes like an arms race.”
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