Pageant Video Blog
Photos from the Miss Teen USA 2014 preliminary swimsuit competition on August 1, 2014 from Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas.
Contestants competing in swimsuits by Kandice Pelletier Swimwear
Photos by Zac Grimaldo for thePageantGuy.com © 2014
P.S. (After all photos load, use the left and right arrows to scroll slideshow)
-Will the Pageant Guy
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K. Lee is both artistic and academic. Theatre is her passion, throughout middle and high school she has been involved in local productions and studied drama at the SC Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities intensive summer programs.
K. Lee is committed to her studies, taking on challenging courses which have earned her a Number 1 class rank. She also has a passion for working with children, and volunteers on a weekly basis with her church's Children's Ministry in addition to volunteering with many other organizations such as the USO, the American Heart Association, Christ Central Ministries, LifeChangers, and the Arthritis Foundation throughout the past year.
Being Miss South Carolina Teen USA has enabled K. Lee to promote her Live Beautifully campaign, encouraging girls across her state to find true beauty by embracing themselves, others, and their communities by speaking to schools, growing the Live Beautifully blog, and planning the first Live Beautifully Day. (Bio and photo courtesy of Miss Universe Organization)
Special thanks to Alyssa Campanella for the interview and Zac Grimaldo for video.
-Will the Pageant Guy
During the Miss USA 2014 pageant, I had the amazing opportunity to spend 4 days capturing on film all of the Miss Teen USA 2014 contestants during their visit to Baton Rouge.
From spending time at the Childrens' Hospital to enjoying Louisiana's finest food at a crawfish boil -- and all of the amazing events in between -- the Miss Teen USA 2014 contestants truly had an incredible weekend together building new friendships before competing at the Miss Teen USA 2014 pageant this August.
Many thanks to the Miss Universe Organization for allowing us to document these great moments on video, Lauren and Blair for organizing a hospitable and fun-filled weekend, Zac Grimaldo for this talented video production, and to all of the Miss Teen USA 2014 contestants for making an already awesome Miss USA 2014 weekend an unforgettable one!
Here's a short film of the Miss Teen USA 2014 contestants at Miss USA 2014.
-Will the Pageant Guy
I had the great opportunity to capture photos and videos of all the Miss Teen USA 2014 contestants during their time at the Miss USA 2014 pageant as they toured Baton Rouge.
Thank you to Lauren and Blair for an amazing job organizing this fun filled weekend event and to Zac Grimaldo for capturing some great moments on camera!
The first slideshow is a compilation of all the photos and captions I took and live tweeted on Twitter during the weekend and the second slideshow are all the candids that Zac Grimaldo shot. Videos coming soon!
P.S. (After photos load, use arrows on the left and right of the slideshow to scroll)
-Will the Pageant Guy
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Each year, as an Official Recruiter for the Miss Texas USA and Miss Texas Teen USA pageant, I have the amazing opportunity to direct and produce the wonderful Miss Dallas Pageant.
From choosing opening number attire, creating program books, picking music, selecting bouquets, and even a little bit of choreography...it's always a blast to see how it all turns out onstage during a live show!
The undisputed Rule #1 for all contestants, staff, parents, emcees, etc. is to HAVE FUN (we encourage tons of dancing, junk food, cell phone use, tweeting, twerking...but not the tweeting of twerking lol) ...and if it wasn't fun every year, I would've been done with this a LONG time ago 🙂
So to give you a glimpse of what happened this past weekend, here are the 9 Things I Learned at the Miss Dallas Pageant 2014:
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-Will the Pageant Guy
GUEST BLOG: K. Lee Graham with Jennifer Graham, gown designer
We all know that one of the most exciting parts of pageant preparation is finding the gown. Luckily for me, I’ve been blessed to have a mother that has been particularly involved in helping me choose my wardrobe. Together, we designed my off-white silk charmeuse and organza gown, and she handmade it.
My mom, Jennifer Graham, has always made my pageant gowns and they have all been special, but to me this was her masterpiece! I originally wore it in my high school pageant last February, but it made me feel so confident that I knew it was the dress that I needed to wear for the Miss South Carolina Teen USA 2014 pageant!
It’s pretty interesting how my mom got started with creating gowns. When she competed as a teen, my grandmother made her gowns. It looks like I’ll have to take some sewing classes soon if we want to continue the tradition!
“My mom and I made my gowns because we couldn’t afford to buy them, but I always loved it since I would have a beautiful gown that no one else would have.”
–Jennifer Graham
When people hear that my mom makes my gowns, they’re always interested in learning how she does it. As you can imagine, making a gown from scratch is much different than ordering a dress from a designer. But like any gown, we start with a concept.
For this gown, we knew we wanted a side train. We already had yards of this beautiful ivory silk organza, so that became the first element we based the design on. We wanted to create a gown that reflected me and my personality, it had to be very elegant and somewhat sophisticated but still age appropriate.
In order to remain cost efficient, we always check to see what we can use from dresses she already made. Normally we take elements from a few different gowns and use them to make a completely new one.
After trying on dresses, we decided to use the skirt of a gown Mom had made for herself years ago when she was Mrs. South Carolina America. It was made completely of silk charmeuse, even lined in it.
Lace appliqués were placed all around the hips, and the bottom of the gown was also accented with the same appliqués, but these had soft white feathers attached to them to create an ethereal look and movement when I walked.
So after determining what we already had, Mom and I took a trip to our favorite fabric store. These trips are always so fun for us, and very special.
When my mom was a teen, her mom took her to the same store to get lace for her gowns, so as you can imagine it means a lot to me to share this experience with my mom. At the store, we found some gorgeous lace appliqués that would look fabulous to accent the bodice we planned to make.
After buying the new appliqués, we started putting together the gown...
“I didn’t learn to sew until I was 30, when I took a sewing and smocking class. I wish I had known how much I enjoy it, I would have started much earlier in life.”
-Jennifer Graham
When it comes to actually creating a gown, we have a unique sort of process. There’s definitely an element of flexibility, fabrics don’t always work the way you want them to.
Much of our creation process is trial and error. We have a general idea, a look that we go after, and work out the details as we construct the gown.
We already had the skirt, so after experimenting with a few different options for the bodice we settled on a corset style top with a sweetheart neckline. This gave the gown some structure, and balanced out the flowiness of the skirt.
So we had the basic form of the gown, the next step was to add the detailing. My mom’s designs are characterized by her attention to detail; she has an amazing eye for placing lace and stones just so in order to create a gorgeous overall image.
After attaching the top and skirt, I would just stand there in the gown while we would pin and unpin appliqués until we were both happy with how it accented the dress and me. We also had to work out the placement of the train. It had to be placed a certain way so that it would be cohesive with the rest of the gown.
By bringing it diagonally down across the torso, there weren’t any unflattering lines. We also added a drape of lace across my left arm to continue the line created by the train.
After a few months of fitting (and in my mom’s case sewing and rhinestoning) whenever we had a chance, the gown was finally finished!
Wearing a gown created by my mom made my experience at the Miss South Carolina Teen USA 2014 pageant all the more special.
The dress is a tangible representation of how supportive my Mom is of me and my goals, and working on it together has been a bonding experience for both of us.
I’ve never felt more confident in a dress and I am so grateful to have such a talented woman in my life!
I'm so proud of Mom for winning Miss South Carolina Teen USA 1985, and to follow in her footsteps as Miss South Carolina Teen USA 2014 is a dream come true!
