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Late 1990’s rush - Panhellenic had cracked down on rush budgets by then but wasn’t smart enough to outlaw “donations”.

Outfits- matching outfits ordered in bulk every round
Open House was letter shirts, gap khaki “walking” shorts, and of course we could accessorize with our own Brighton belts (ugh!)
Philanthropy was matching shirts from Epress and white skirts (IIRC?)
Skit Night was black slacks and more matching shirts from Express
There was another round before Pref that has since been cut. That was black dresse.
Pref was cream colored suits (oh yes!) that we had to have custom made with matching fabric and 2 patterns to choose from. Hideously matching!!

Decorations-
Every round had 200 sets of matching name tags for actives (and an entire crew to make them!) and matching themed banners, balloons, flowers, etc. Pref had our signature anchor ice sculpture.

Food-
No food except pref. My house did punch & Petit Fors with each PNM’s name on them. The PNM’s were always too nervous to eat so we would scarf down their leftovers between parties. lol!
I think my other pref hous something chocolate with their letters in chocolate drizzle

Gifts-
We gave each pnm real orchid lies flown in from Hawaii to wear during pref and then if they got a bid they would get it back on Bid Day. Cue the tears!!

Skits-
Our skit was EPIC! They were a huge production with stage decor, singing, dancing, acting, and other tricks. I miss the skits so much!

I went through in 2004, so frills were on the way out. We did not have skits and VPs of recruitment could not require us to all go out and get specific identical items for recruitment.

Ex: She can say, "Hey guys make sure you get a navy polo." Not "You need to go get Ralph Lauren Style 2431 Polo in Navy."

I do have some sisters who went through in the late 90s AND they were usually required to purchase and have altered the SAME dress for Preference. (Think being a bridesmaid. You order Monique Lhuillier Style ABC, have it altered, and bring it to recruitment workshop/rehearsals to try on.)

I did a retro rush thread years ago, and we had frills. I'll try to dig it up later.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TXDG (Post 2458956)

Food-
No food except pref. My house did punch & Petit Fors with each PNM’s name on them. The PNM’s were always too nervous to eat so we would scarf down their leftovers between parties. lol!
I think my other pref hous something chocolate with their letters in chocolate drizzle

A few years ago the chapter I advise did cake pops for the Pref food. We would run around between rounds and collect all the uneaten ones and scarf them down. During the ceremony the actives would be looking out at the PNMs sitting at the tables and I'm pretty sure half the time it was to stalk the plates of the women not eating theirs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by honeychile (Post 2458969)

I did a retro rush thread years ago, and we had frills. I'll try to dig it up later.

Here it is: Frills Rush

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForeverRoses (Post 2458971)

Love this! It’s the little things like these that are my favorite memories from my active years. Pref is such an emotional night - and as an active you feel the pressure to “sell” your house to the girls you’re dying to pledge. We would always bust out laughing between parties as we ran around like crazy eating petit fors bites:)

Quote:

Originally Posted by BraveMaroon (Post 2458898)

Theme name tags for each round. Elaborately decorated, calligraphy. Intricate shapes. Lots of ribbon, hot glue and love.

Every round, we filled the entire ceiling with helium balloons with curling ribbon strings. I was one of about 7 people who could tie a balloon, so I was up every morning at 5AM huddled around the helium tank. We had a skit round that was Planet Hollywood themed - so, movie posters and standups covering the walls.

When I rushed, one house had an outerspace theme. All blacklight and glow in the dark. Another had a slumber party theme, so we sat on sleeping bags and the walls were lined with pillows and stuffed animals. One house did Aladdin (this was 1993, so...) and turned their house into a bazaar.

Themed attire. Matchy matchy everything. Lots of bows!

One round our tables had centerpieces of live goldfish.

Lots of food. Cheesecake, ice cream sundaes, iced cookies in a shape or color of the sorority, popcorn. Cokes in the glass bottle with colorful straws. Custom cocktail napkins. We had food or drink of some kind every round.

Door stacks and lawn chants. Choreography. The skits were a big deal.

At pref, they gave you a small favor of some kind. A flower, a symbol from their sorority. You wouldn't leave with it, but they would meet you with it on bid day. People who had met you throughout the week would write notes of encouragement to be read at prefs.

The year I rushed was the last year they allowed uniform dresses at pref. One house wore them, the other house did little black dresses.

Lots of flowers, candles. Wishing wells and fountains, special music...

One of my pref houses had petit fours with their letters. A friend went to a house where her dessert plate had her name written in chocolate.

It was a lot of time, work and money.

I regret nothing.

Except maybe the goldfish.

This is how it was at Sigma Kappa when I went through. I will admit, this was amazing, and beautiful, and over the top, but SO COOL. The songs were amazing, I think I hummed, Come be a Sigma all week!! I think no frills is way more realistic, but when I went through RUSH, the day two theme was camp Sigma Kappa, and we had tents everywhere, and I loved it! =) =). We had goldfish too!!!

Everyone had elaborate rush parties when I rushed at FSU in the late 60's. I walked into the house I eventually pledged and the members wore long formal gowns in pastels, with white gloves that came up over their elbows. This was for ice waters!
Flowers everywhere in all the houses.
Skits were like off Broadway shows. Elaborate ice cream desserts in the shape of roses.

I later found out just how much prep went into rush week. I didn't see my boyfriend for ten days. (he was on the football team so he was super busy too)
So much changed by the time I graduated. No more formal gowns in 98 degree weather, but we all had to wear the same nautical style dresses.

Large southern state school, early 2000s. We had recently adopted “no frills” which meant round 1-3 outfits couldn’t all match (they could all have a vague color theme but even then you had to be careful not to get a violation for being too matchy), only water was served besides at pref, not really much in the way of decorations before pref round. We did do “walk outs” at the start of each round which was probably the frilliest thing. Now I look at my chapter’s Instagram and it seems like frills are creeping back in? There are a lot more decorations in earlier rounds, outfits match more, etc. I think it seems fun, I just wonder if it is considered “no frills” and the definition has changed, or if the campus ditched no frills formally.

I was at UF in the late 80s/early 90s. We had skits every round and I was the "star" of the Round 1 skit, which was a take on Animal House and was SUPER fun. I feel like we had food and drink from 2nd round on. For 2nd round (I think it was 2nd?) we were Delta Airlines flight attendants, all dressed up in either red or navy suits, with "wing" pins. We set the room up in rows like a plane, gave rushees snacks on little trays, and had a skit where someone hijacked the plane and made us go to places like Switzerland and Hawaii and had cute girls dressed up and doing songs/dances wherever we landed. "High on a hill lived three Swiss girls, pledge won't you pledge won't you pledge Tri Delt!" It was magical. But then Delta Airlines got wind of what we were doing and made us stop doing it....LOL And then of course 9/11 happened later, so hijacking was no longer something to joke around with, anyway. I think 3rd round was more serious food/convo/songs and then Prefs had the monogrammed Petit Fours and was very sincere. I had never thought about it much, but it truly was a recruitment with all the frills---and I'm go glad I got to be a part of that when it was still around! Sigh.