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?

[honeychile]

I went through a full frills recruitment also, which was seriously amazing. Our Bid Day, however. was as you described, to a point. We got the t-shirt and cake, but we did have one thing different. There was a fraternity who was trying to build up their reputation, so they had "Kiss and Carnation". They sent a bunch of pledges to give each new member (you guessed it!) a kiss and carnation.

Now, fraternities are no longer permitted at Bid Day festivities.

[KatieKate1244]

I was active in the mid-aughts and I feel like we were maybe like half frills? I remember themes and decorations (some balloons, flowers) but nothing too crazy. What I really remember was seeing the custom Vineyard Vines and Vera Bradley tote bags that some chapters got on Bid Day.

These days I feel like the decorations are a lot more elaborate but the Bid Day gifts have gotten smaller. This year my chapter did tanks, fanny packs (excuse me--"belt bags"), and a few little odds and ends like a pen, a few stickers, pin for their new fanny pack.

[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by 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?

This was my experience.

[carnation]

And mine!

[SigmaCat]

Originally Posted by KatieKate1244

I was active in the mid-aughts and I feel like we were maybe like half frills?

Same for us in the mid-90s. We had flowers, balloons, and some pretty extensive scenery, costuming and decor for our rush skits and themes, but we didn't serve food, give pref gifts, or buy identical outfits, and our bid day was pretty chill. There wasn't any big offsite party or retreat. Big sister gifts were nice but purposefully limited, too. We didn't have a tshirt for every game day/mixer/invitational/Friends viewing party/bathroom break on chapter record, either.

[anongreek]

I would definitely say our recruitment was "full frills" to the max. Every girl in the chapter looked identical (hair, makeup, shirts, pants, etc) for most of the nights. Their skit was, as mentioned before, a mini-broadway production. Having attending pref nights @ 2 sororities, I can say it was the same way for both as far as frills. All of the sisters really put their WHOLE heart and soul into recruitment. I don't even want to know how much they spent, although I will say this, in every chapter there was always some VERY talented sisters that banded together and did a lot of DIY projects for recruitment to cut down on costs. Thank God for talented sisters! I think if you would have told them that you painted a mean banner/ wooden block letters during rush, they would have given you a bid on the spot (kidding -- but the demand for talented sisters was pretty high because it really did help the sorority out with costs). Some sisters from sisters from different sororities would even help their "neighboring" sororities with painting their signs, etc. We went to a smaller school where a lot of the greeks were REALLY good friends, even though they all wore different letters. They really only shut down and got competitive when we were put against each other in some sort of "greek wars" festivities. Other times, it wasn't uncommon for say, Phi Mu's to be helping out Chi Omegas. All of our 'neighbors' houses were literally all a few hundred feet from each other on the row, so we did a lot of labor-swapping for our big days. Which, I still find really special! But, that played a HUGE factor in regulating costs for everyone. The more you could do yourself, the more money you could spend elsewhere.
As for our bid day, I wouldn't say it was FULL frills, but it was somewhere in between. All of the girls had on their matching bid day shirts standing out in front of the house in a big mob, emblazoned with face paint and glitter, each holding a hand-made sign with your name on it. They gave every girl a bag, a cup, a matching bid day shirt, and a paper crown with their mascot on it!
We didn't immediately have a retreat. We had one several weeks later as a "NM bonding" trip. But, the night of Bid Day, we hung out, ate spaghetti and watched a movie at the house. There was cake!

Recruitment/ Bid Day (for me) was such a great experience! It was incredible to see how much work each sorority had put into their festivities for every night.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by KatieKate1244

I was active in the mid-aughts and I feel like we were maybe like half frills? I remember themes and decorations (some balloons, flowers) but nothing too crazy. What I really remember was seeing the custom Vineyard Vines and Vera Bradley tote bags that some chapters got on Bid Day.

These days I feel like the decorations are a lot more elaborate but the Bid Day gifts have gotten smaller. This year my chapter did tanks, fanny packs (excuse me--"belt bags"), and a few little odds and ends like a pen, a few stickers, pin for their new fanny pack.

This is my experience as well. We were the transitional years of no frills (2004-2006ish) in which we'd only recently stopped having skits, and were moving away from exact matching outfits or the exact same pref dress.

As far as Bid Days, they are definitely more elaborate now. The NMs do not get as much in the way of gifts, but the day itself is more of an event than in the past.

Typicall Mid 2000s Bid Day: Run to your chapter. Get shirt. Go back to house. Have cake maybe. Take photos. Hang out a little. Take more pics. Go home. New Member gets bag of goodies to include a cup, a bag, a pillowcase, notepad, pens.

Bid Day Now: Elaborate theme. Ex: A chapter this year did The Greatest Show/Chapter. Decorations are all circus themed. Everyone wears super fun make up with their circus themed shirt. NM gets shirt. Comes back to house. There is a DJ. Popcorn machine. Food trucks with funnel cake. Kona shaved ice truck. Bounce house. Pictures. NMs get some small things like pens, keychain, etc. Focus is much more on it being an overall fun event v. just cake and hanging out and gifts.

It has pros and cons I'm sure.

[TLLK]

Originally Posted by 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?

My early 1980's experience was similar to yours though without the gifts on Bid Day. Rush was five days with each day becoming a little more elaborate. Skits took up a great deal of preparation with our best dancers squeezed onto a tiny stage. Themed days such as "Camp DG" (Camp Beverly Hills was popular then.) Preference was more elaborate and formal.


Bid day was more low key probably because we were too exhausted from the week especially with bid matching extending far into the night for those involved with work that was done by hand then. Pledges received their bids on campus and then they drove to our off campus houses. Back at the house, our mothers group laid our all of the polished silver, china and printed DG napkins for a luncheon featuring a salad bar, lemonade and strawberry trifle.



We had a photographer, balloons, and the new pledges received a ribbon pin to wear until they received their pledge pin but that was it.

[ggforever]

At UF, recruitment is completely no-frills now. This year we were not allowed any decorations. We were only allowed flowers if it was part of your ceremony. I will say, I REALLY liked this new policy. We used to spend incredible amounts of money on flowers that were just thrown away after each round. Bid Day is another thing. The chapters really go all out. There are themes, DJs, big banners, and lots of food. The house lawns are decorated the way we used to decorate for homecoming. HUGE displays are out front for some houses. They are all filmed and some chapters use drones. The swag bags have gotten out of control. One chapter bought each new member very expensive, name-brand backpacks to put all their goodies in. I am guessing they spent in the area of $125 on each new member for the items given out. Add that to the cost of the event and it is a very expensive day.

[shadokat]

So I know it's against every NPC rule, but nobody had booze on bid day?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by shadokat

So I know it's against every NPC rule, but nobody had booze on bid day?

You know I did, lol.

I think a lot of places still do, it’s just delayed a week or so. Which is really not a bad idea because if you do have women uncertain about where they ended up (not to mention if most of your pledges are first semester freshmen who know the people they met in rush and that’s it) probably the last place you want them to immediately be is around boys and beer.

[33girl]

Oh, and obviously you couldn’t do this with too large of a pledge class unless you split the sorority into multiple groups, but our pledges didn’t have any collective event or run to the groups - the sorority members went to the new pledges’ different dorms/apartments and picked them up to take them to the bid day festivities. I can see where this would be a no go now because of safety factors and I’m sure it was annoying as hell for non Greeks since it was ALL OVER campus, but I think this way was a lot easier for all involved. Doing everything in public where you can see if someone is disappointed with their bid or if one sorority has an appreciably smaller class than the rest seems like a recipe for lots of potential hurt feelings. At least if a sorority you didn’t want came to your door you could get upset in private - less embarrassing for both sides. It would lessen the excitement, but I think it would be better to know where you are running before you are less than 50 feet away.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by 33girl

You know I did, lol.

I think a lot of places still do, it’s just delayed a week or so. Which is really not a bad idea because if you do have women uncertain about where they ended up (not to mention if most of your pledges are first semester freshmen who know the people they met in rush and that’s it) probably the last place you want them to immediately be is around boys and beer.

Same for my school. Bid Day is a Sunday usually so the first opportunity anyone really has to go out or do anything like that is the Thursday of that week. I have never heard of anyone going out that Sunday night. Because tired.

[TLLK]

Originally Posted by shadokat

So I know it's against every NPC rule, but nobody had booze on bid day?

Another story from the early eighties involved my cousin was the recruitment chair for her KKG chapter at Cornell. After receiving the news about who had accepted bids, the chapter was thrilled with their new pledge class. They'd managed to get a high percentage of the most sought after pledges that year. She told me that somehow she ended up on top of the grand piano with her joyful sisters pouring beer all over her.