Pageant Dress Hustle!

We are still awaiting final donations for our Sponsor Fee but decided to do a little Pageant Dress shopping in the meantime.

Ok, finding a Pageant Dress is not as easy as you think.  Well finding a big poofy one isn't that easy. Where do you look? Well first I thought...bridal shops? Then I thought...well I don't want her looking like a flowergirl. Then I went to the internet. There were only a couple shops that came up that showed "pageant dress for girls" in our area. But when I called them...no one actually carried the dresses in the store. You pretty much have to look through catalogs and order the dress in the size you think your girl will need....and hope it fits and looks great!

After several calls to different shops I finally found one shop that claimed to carry girls pageant dresses in store so we made a appointment.

Got there and they only had 4 or 5 dresses in Nicole's size to choose from in my price range. Speaking of price range...pageant gowns are off the chain expensive. I'm curious to see what other girls will be wearing at the pageant.

Well my price range was on the low-budget scale on the pageant dress spectrum...and it was still $$$!

Well let's take a look at Ms. Diva!!

 

Nicole loved this dress...But I thought she looked too much like a little bride!

 

 

Royal Blue is just fantastic!!

 

 

Ok Ms Diva...you better work!!

 

 

She doesn't seem happy in this lol!!

 

 

Well after leaving the shop...we made a decision and I ordered the dress in her size and hopefully it will arrive early June. Can you guess which dress we chose?

 

 

Operation: Get that Sponsor Fee!!

In order to particpate in the National American Miss (NAM) pageant, each finalist needs to pay a sponsor fee. It is $480! Plus $50 for each optional contest you want to do. So far we definitely want to do the optional Talent contest so that brings our total to $530 already...YIKES!

Literature from NAM, suggests raising this sponsor fee by asking friends/family or asking for donations from local businesses. This is not always an easy task. I did a walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society a couple years ago and I found it to be extremely hard to raise funds through friends and family..lol. But maybe because it's Nicole...it will be easier to get people to donate. :)

So Nicole made a few calls and left a few messages with family/friends and Mom asked a few work buddies to support. Because we signed up kinda late...we are in crunch time to turn in our Sponsor Fee...so we really need to work some magic.

To add a little more about NAM. Their pageant system is dedicated to empowering and encouraging America's future leaders, and equipping them with valuable life skills. The Pageant Categories are: Interview, Personal Introduction, Formal Wear, and Community Service Project.

Businesses have two ways they could show Nicole support: 1) They could donate funds to help her meet her Sponsor Fee or 2) They could buy an Ad spot in the NAM program book. Girls get special recognition if they get companies to place an Ad spot so we will try to get at least two businesses to place an Ad.

The other day I told Nicole to put on her "business dress" and we would go down to Jimmy Johns, a sandwich spot we go to often, and give them our sales pitch lol. It was the cutest thing ever. The manager sits down with her, shakes her hand and listens as she tells him about her pageant!

He tells her he will recommend supporting her to the owner....and we'll hear from them soon.

 

 

 

So far we have collected $40 towards our Sponsor Fee...we are on a mission to meet our goal by the end of May! Wish us luck!

 

 

 

Never say Never

 Never did I ever think I would enter my daughter into a Pageant...
but never say never I guess! :)

At first when I thought about child pageants...visions of overly made up girls fussing at their moms about their hair and makeup popped into my head. But last year a friend invited us to come to her daughter's pageant National American Miss that was being held really close to our house. Though we couldn't make it to the actual Pageant finale we did get to visit with them a few hours before the finale and it looked so fun! All the little girls in their princess dresses looked so cute. I asked Nicole if she would be interested in doing it the following year and she told me NO. LOL. Nicole gets a little bit of stage fright even though she's absolutely not a shy girl.

                  Now let's fast forward to January 2014, Lifetime Network announces:

Nicole and I instantly fell in love with this show. Kim Gravel is a pageant coach in Georgia and she teaches the girls how to be a pageant pros. Kim is a former Miss Georgia and participated in Miss America. What we really liked about the show is that she sometimes picks girls that are "not your typical pageant girl" to compete in the different pageants. Our favorite girl from the show is Addison. She is very much a tomboy but when she dresses up for those pageants she is breathtaking. But her speech and accent...still needs work though lol. But that's why we love her....her personality is great. Kim also works with the girls on self-esteem and confidence.

After watching the show, Nicole started getting interested in doing a pageant under one condition-NO MAKE-UP. You see I don't have the typical little girl that loves to play dress up with make-up...she wants nothing to do with it. Even when it comes to her dance recitals where they encourage the girls to use a little make-up...Nicole is probably the only one rocking "the natural look"!

Since the only pageant we knew about was the National American Miss, we went ahead and applied online to see if they were still accepting girls for this year's pageant. A couple weeks ago, we got our package in the mail and Nicole is on her way to being a Virginia State Finalist in the National American Miss Junior Pre-Teen category!! And guess what...for that age group...girls are not allowed to have on any noticable makeup! :)

Next step...find some sponsors!!!!

Stay tuned