Recruitment with all the Frills?

[BraveMaroon]

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.