Pack With Me for National All-American Miss!

Hey, Y'all! It's Hannah Slater. Welcome to another blog! Today, I'm sharing some tips on packing for the National All-American Miss pageant and some tips on staying organized while packing.

I started officially packing on November 11th. We drove to Minneapolis last night (November 21st) and will fly to Orlando TODAY (November 22nd)! I start packing early because it takes me a while to organize everything, and I have everything I need. Plus, if I need to order any last-minute items, I can ensure my orders arrive on time. So here are some packing tips and tricks!

When packing for a National Pageant, I make sure I have a lot of sticky notes, packing cubes, and several suitcases...

First, I put my schedule for NAM on my computer, grabbed a marker and some sticky notes, and went through the schedule, event by event, writing down what outfit was needed for each party/rehearsal/optional/required competition. Each event gets its own sticky note, for example, "Gown," "Gown Shoes," and "Gown Earrings." Once I wrote a sticky note for each wardrobe piece, I had a pile on my computer that looked like this...

Then, I put each sticky note on my mirror, grouping them into optional and required competitions, parties, and rehearsals. Once that is done, my mirror looks like...

With the wardrobe pieces sorted, it's time to bring out the packing cubes, a crucial part of my packing process! This is what keeps me organized! I have packing cubes for casual clothes, clothes for hair and makeup, undergarments, rehearsal outfits, optional outfits, and any odd accessories. Using packing cubes keeps my suitcases organized, and I can fit so many pieces in them! I also have a little jewelry travel case for all of my earrings. I have little ziplock bags for each pair of earrings I need that fit nicely into my jewelry case.

The first suitcase I packed was my big one. In this suitcase, I put all of my shoes (besides my required shoes) and as many packing cubes as I could fit, which was only 4. Half the suitcase was full of all my shoes, so I only had one side for packing cubes. This suitcase also had my rehearsal outfits, undergarments, and hair and makeup clothes (basically casual clothes).

I have two special suitcases for my dresses and jumpsuits. They are specially designed for gowns, and I packed one of them next. I started packing my dresses and jumpsuits. I packed my Doll Ball dress, Red Carpet Award dresses (this is one of the two outfits for which I have two options), and my Gold Gala dress.

I don't pack my dress suitcase full; I don't want to squish anything or cram my dresses into one bag, especially the ones that have my optional or required competition wardrobe in them.

My medium suitcase holds whatever else doesn't fit into my other bags: the rest of my casual clothes, airport clothes, all of my toiletries, makeup, and my handheld light in case it's too dark for pictures.

My other small suitcase is filled with gifts! I have little Girl Chat baggies filled with pink candies, a Girl Chat business card, pink eye patches, Girl Chat stickers, and Girl Chat Mirrors! Each woman I am competing with this week will receive one. I also have gifts for my incredible coaches and hair/makeup team!

Poppi helping me pack all of my gifts!

One of the last suitcases I packed was my carry-on. I had my last coaching session on Tuesday (November 19th), so I needed my required shoes! My gown has its own carry-on bag, and I also have a carry-on suitcase! In this suitcase, I put all of my required competition pieces: gown earrings, gown shoes, check-in outfit, check-in shoes, check-in earrings, intro/interview outfit, intro/interview shoes, and intro/interview earrings! If something happens to my checked suitcases, I will have at least all of my required pieces.

And the very last suitcase I packed was the rest of optional outfits/party outfits.

These all went into my other dress suitcase! This one has my Runway jumpsuit, Thanksgiving dress, Top Model outfit, Casual Wear dress, Spokesmodel dress, and two just-in-case outfits. I would have loved to pack this suitcase significantly sooner, but I had been waiting for one last piece of an outfit to arrive: my runway pants. I dropped them off to my seamstress in September, fingers crossed.

Five suitcases later.... we are finally packed! Thanks for reading my packing tips and what works for me!

*SOME of my suitcases, my mom & dad have my other 4*

Let's do this, Team Hannah🩷

XOXO,

Hannah Slater

My helper for writing this blog :)