I entered my first ever pageant called the Aussie Power Pageant made up of Miss Intercontinental Australia & Miss Global Australia. I applied in July 2018 with Nationals being held in September 2018. If you haven’t competed in pageants before it’s not the longest time to prepare and oh boy I had totally under estimated what I was up for..
First off there is quite a hefty price behind pageants, you got dresses, costumes, gowns, shoes and accessories, entry fees, hair and makeup artists, motel and travel fees the list never ends really. If you can find a sponsor(s) to help you through your journey it’s definitely ideal.
I held my first ever charity event to support and raise funds for the R U OK Foundation. I decided to do a “Be Yourself Talent Show”, to get the local kids involved in having a little fun, enjoying themselves and not taking themselves too seriously.
Thomas and I travelled the day of orientation! Anyone in pageants already holding their breathes. But believe me it gets worse so please get comfy. We did an 8.5 hour car trip and checked into our motel, second mistake having a room booked for my partner in the motel across the road. I also had a shared room with two other girls and thank god for those girls. Mel & Talia had competed before and could already see what roll coaster I was about to hope on.
So when I booked into the room with the girls we had our greetings and these girls were dressed right up. Me I had travelled all day dressed casually with only mascara on and already running late! (Again I can feel the pageantiets aura) These girls were quick to action filling me in on alll there is to know and do for a pageant and I was realising at this point I was only meeting half way for this one. We whacked some quick eyeliner and patted on eyeshadow with our fingers, I was scraped up for sure. We arrive at orientation and omg the girls are glitz and again I’m only half there. We received beautiful gift bags from the amazing sponsors that had so many awesome things inside to help us through the week and some products Ive bought and still use.
Throughout the week we had photo shoots, slumber parties, gold soirée parties, costumes and gown changes, swimwear and practise practice practicing our routines. Our photo shoots considered of headshots, swimwear, formal gown & National costume. Can’t lie my gown was ill fitted and I had paid someone to take it in for me, which when they did, they only sewed one side of the dress to make the size and my dress although slightly more fitting was even more ill fitted. My favourite outfit change was the National costumes. We created our costumes based on something relating to Australia, living in Lightning Ridge I choose Black Opal as its the only place in the world it is found and opal is the national gemstone of Oz. I hand sewed my bustle and sewed and safety pinned together a dress to create a leotard style, I also cut a handbag of mine to create the shoes to match and hot glued all the feathers to a seperate neck piece I made with card board and fabric.
shortly after and still hasn’t returned.
In the blink of an eye the week went by and I was late to everything, lost one earring at formal gown shoot and beautiful Bhavika was quick to rip out her own backing of her earring to lend me, that and we crawled on our hands and knees in pageant gowns on the lobby floor looking for the lost earring, wearing hardly any makeup to the slumber party to find I’m honk chooing with barbies, wearing heels for what felt like 3 years, having an old couple unzip my costume in the elevator for my gown change, I was told off for taking pictures of other girls while I was supposed to be performing for judges, taking a hike with the girls only to find the closest 7 eleven cos we were starving, getting up at 6am and going to bed at 3am, I ran from my partners motel across a main 4 lane highway with one heel in my hand the other on the foot and mind you I was on my way for swimsuit shoot! I got horns and screaming running with my glitter beach cover shedding glitter EVERYWHERE 👀 including the elevator when I first opened it out of the bag, I am so sorry to that cleaner that caught in the act of glitter rain and shamelessly halfway through putting my legs threw the hole, I definitely learnt a lot!
The week went by so quickly but the experiences were unforgettable. I made friends, gained confidence, had fun and just took the time to take it all in and just really enjoyed it. Two girls stood out to me from the start and I can’t lie I was mesmerised by them even! One girl won a crown that year and has taken out other titles since, she has become my biggest inspiration in pageantry as well as the other girl did not win that year but she competed in another pageant in 2019 finally won after entering year after year she competed internationally and won another title! You honestly meet such amazing girls with such big ambitions and dreams and they are all absolutely smashing those goals!
Over all, I knew I wasn’t there to win a crown and I truly had the best experience! Would I compete again, yes absolutely.
Love you lots, Bree xoxo
BeeKayMit 