Full frills vs no frills bid days

[Remiechi]

After seeing all the cute, creative bid day themes on Instagram this year, I thought back on my bid days (as a pledge and active) during the "full frills" years of recruitment.
For each themed day of rush we had custom name tags, matching outfits (no t-shirts or shorts), color coordinated treats and desserts, balloon arches and floral arrangements, along with rehearsed songs and dances. Skit day was like a mini-broadway production.
Yet our bid days, along with the other campus chapters, were spare and simple. We did all run to our respective houses, but there were no signs on sticks or buses to drop us off. The theme was our colors, we hung a "welcome pledges" banner, served cake and passed out a t-shirt and tumbler to each new member. That was it! My roommates who pledged different sororities seemed to have the same experiences.
Comparing it to today's bid days I just find it interesting that after a full week of budget blowing parties our campus chapters just closed the week without too much fanfare. Did any of you that experienced full frills rush have a blow-out bid day as they do now?