Bid day is a day that will live on in the minds of your new initiates for many years, if not forever. It’s the day that they learn that they are wanted by a popular sorority chapter on campus. It’s so good to feel wanted. Make it a special day that they won’t soon forget. If you’re looking for unforgettable bid day ideas, this is a good place to start.

Community Service Initiative

Guaranteed, when you make a difference in your community and show your new potentials how committed you are to service, it will be an experience that you and they won’t forget. The rush of energy that you get when you know that you helped someone, whether it’s a school full of young students, a food drive, or people who need a kind face at a soup kitchen, is hard to describe. So, try to incorporate a service project into your bid day activities to make it more memorable. It will help inspire your potential new members to do more, and get them ready for the community service activities required by your chapter.

Those Who Cook Together, Stay Together

Once your bids are distributed and everyone is excited, this is a perfect time to start the bonding process. Cooking is an amazing and satisfying way to build relationships between future sorority sisters as well as your current members. Choose something simple and fun, like pizzas with tons of toppings. Wear Greek lettered aprons and chef’s hats while cooking.

Foam Party Fun

Nothing says fun quite like a foam party. Rent a foam machine and fill up the floor of your well-decorated party room. Once your candidates receive their bids, bring them inside and surprise them with an impromptu foam party, preferably in the middle of the day. Music, balloons, congratulation banners, and… lots of foam! Remember to get sorority gifts and party favors to give your potential new members after your day of fun.

Stars and Stripes

Being patriotic doesn’t just have to be about loyalty to the red, white, and blue, but also to your sorority and its traditional colors! A “stars and stripes” bid day theme will help you and your new candidates show deference for both the country and sorority you love. Let your flags and banners fly and dress in patriotic-themed sorority shirts, Greek lettered hats, and buttons.  

Willy Wonka “Golden Ticket”

For many, the classic movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a fond childhood memory. Create a Willy Wonka themed bid day for your chosen candidates.

Have the crew dress up as your favorite characters from the Willy Wonka movie, and allow your membership intake coordinator to be Willy Wonka – top hat and all. Design your bids like golden tickets to make receiving one so much more special.

1920s Paris Themed Bid Day

If you ask women what their favorite time and place is in history, many will say the 1920s in Paris, France. This was a period of so much creativity, fun, new dances, and fashion, and Paris was a central location where so many musicians, artists, and writers met. Consider transforming the common room in your chapter house into a scene from 1920s Paris for bid day. Use the movie Midnight in Paris as inspiration. Be sure to ask your bid recipients to come dressed in 1920s costumes or as their favorite artist from the time. It will be an experience they’ll remember for a very long time.

Beachy Bid Day Vibes

Instead of having your bid day on campus, why not have it at the beach? If you are having intake this spring and the weather will be just right, invite your new potentials to your local beach for fun, sun, and the great news that you want them to join your sorority. They’ll probably appreciate having an excuse to get away from school for a while and hang out with you and your sorority sisters. Here’s a bid day gift idea for your attendees: Greek lettered beach towels.

Aren’t you excited for bid day? Times that by 10 for your potential new members! They probably can’t wait to become a part of your organization and get to know you more. Remember to stay safe at your upcoming event, and be sure everyone stays masked up indoors. You and your fellow members can all order matching sorority masks to show that you are not only stylish, but also responsible and safe!

GreekGear.com is a top site for sorority recruitment and bid day gifts, merchandise, and clothing. Browse our latest selection of items so that you’re ready for your upcoming semester.

Planning for sorority recruitment requires a lot of time and effort, so it’s best to get started as soon as possible. One of the most important events you’ll need to plan for is bid day, when you finally give bids to the potential new members who have impressed you and your sisters the most. See if you and your chapter can make these top 10 bid day themes come to life.

1. Love

What do young sorority ladies love more than love? If you are throwing a bid day that coincides with or is close to Valentine’s Day, make that your theme. Think lots of flowers, chocolates, and balloons decorated with your Greek letters and colors. Bid day is a day of love after all — love shown between current members, for your sorority, and for the new sisters who you want to join your chapter.

2. Musical Chairs and Childhood Games

One thing that you will learn with time is that people always have an inner child. No matter how much older you get, you still have a little girl inside wanting to just have fun and be free. Remember all those childhood games you played in school and with your peers? Turn your bid day theme into “return to kid” fun outdoors. Possible games to play:

• Musical Chairs
• Red Light Green Light (or use your two sorority colors instead)
• Hide and Go Seek
• Double Dutch (and regular jump rope)

3. Throwback Bid Day Theme

What is your favorite decade? The twenties? The 50s? Maybe the seventies or the 90s? Create a bid day theme designed around a decade in time that was exciting and inspirational for you and your sisters. Plan out the sorority gifts, outfits, decorations, food choices, and other details that will make it as authentic as possible.

4. What’s Your Favorite Sitcom?

What are your favorite sitcoms? Surely you can think of a few off the top of your head. The Office. Arrested Development. Gossip Girls. Seinfeld. Try to pick one that most if not all of your potential new members are familiar with. Ask everyone, or just your current chapter members, to dress up as the characters and play the role. It will be humorous and show the new girls just how much effort you will put forward to give them a nice day.

5. Beautifying Bid Day

Besides shopping, the next best thing is getting a luxurious mani and pedi at your favorite salon. Rent out a nail salon for a few hours and invite your girls there for an afternoon or evening of pampering to celebrate bid day. That way, when you present your new group of members to the campus they’ll be looking fresh and clean! Make sure the entire salon is decorated with your sorority colors, banners, symbols, balloons, and party favors. 

6. Sorority Mascot or Symbol Theme

When you’re throwing a bid day party, you want to get your new initiates more familiar with the symbols and colors of the sorority. So make sure that your venue is completely adorned with everything to identify your Greek group. That includes colorful sorority flags, banners, images of your mascot, customized tumbler cups at the refreshment table, rush t-shirts, and party favors. Be sure to set a table of items from your chapter’s history, such as photo albums, wooden paddles, and paraphernalia from decades ago.

7. Cocktail Hour—Time to Dress Up!

One thing you can create for bid day is a special cocktail hour at your chapter house where everyone must wear their cutest cocktail dress to the event. But encourage them to add accoutrements to the outfit, such as boa scarves and colorful jewelry (preferably in your sorority colors) to make things more interesting. Keep it light. Serve deliciously creative hors d’oeuvres. For example, if your sorority mascot is a teddy bear, you might have a spinach dip served in a dish shaped like a bear for dipping.

8. Tea Party Anyone?

Surely you are impressed with the sophistication and luxury of having a lovely tea party with good company. Tea parties date back hundreds of years for a reason — it’s a simple way to unwind with friends, family, or just acquaintances and have an intimate conversation. A bid day tea party is a perfect way to sit down with your new candidates, congratulate them, and get to know them on a deeper level.

9. Halloween (Thriller)

Do you remember the first time you saw Michael Jackson in his music video for Thriller? Pull together some of the most talented members of your chapter and hold sessions where you all learn the thriller dance for Halloween. Halloween commonly falls around bid day time in the fall, so perfect!

10. Miss “Sorority Queen”

Hold a Miss Universe style presentation at your upcoming bid day, where you and your sorority sisters dress up as contestants. You might find elaborate gowns to rent at a costume store. Have someone act as the host to ask humorous questions. The true winners will be the bid day recipients who will eventually be brought up on stage to receive their prize (the bid) and recognition.

Being in a sorority in college is likely to be one of the best times of your life, and your bid recipients will soon find that out. Make their bid day special with these top 10 bid day themes, which will help them to get to know more about your organization and the personality of the chapter.GreekGear.com is a top site for sorority recruitment and bid day gifts, merchandise, and clothing. Browse our latest selection of items ahead of the upcoming semester at school.