Appearance Guidelines for Royalty
Guide for Official River City Pageant Title Holders
Please understand that these guidelines have been established so that you may always be presented in a respectful and professional manner and that you are seen by the public as official representatives of River City Pageant and Spokane Parks Foundation. We ask that you faithfully follow these rules at all times.
Participation Requirements
We ask that our royalty commit to making a minimum of 3 appearances with their titles during the year though we do not require that it be any particular event or time. You are welcome and encouraged to do far more than that with your title, but we do understand how busy some people get and how other commitments can come along. We also require that all royalty make their best effort to return to the following year’s pageant to crown their successor.
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Non-Compete Clauses
River City Pageant does not have a non-compete clause. This means that we do not require our royalty to give up titles from other pageant systems or not compete in other pageants. We do, however, request that you make your best effort to represent your title to the very best of your ability. Sometimes having more than one title can make that challenging, but we have seen several royalty fully capable of proudly representing 2 and sometimes even 3 titles in one year. If you think this is something you can do, we do not want to stop you!
Other systems, however, do occasionally have non-compete clauses. Before you register for another pageant after becoming royalty for River City Pageant, please verify that their system does not have a non-compete. We would hate for you to win a new title and then find out you have to give one of them up because of a non-compete clause.
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Royalty Appearance Standards
Decorum for wearing River City Pageant sash and crown: Please remember that you are representing two organizations (River City Pageant and Spokane Parks Foundation) anytime you have your sash and crown on and put forth your best behavior and attitudes at all times. That includes refraining from swearing for all ages, tantrums or fighting for younger ages and no drinking or smoking for older ages. It is very important that River City Pageant have a positive image in the community. We want people to see us in the best way possible. You are expected to abide by the following rules when making appearances with your title: Absolutely no profanity is allowed.
- No political commentary or participation in political events with your title.
- No appearances, photos or social media posts that include alcohol, cigarettes or drugs.
- If you are under the age of 13, social media posts should be controlled by a parent.
- Royalty under the age of 13 should have no noticeable make-up on unless for a theatrical or dance performance or costumed event.
- Bullying, gossiping or airing any grievances publicly is strictly prohibited.
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Appearance Wardrobe Requirements
- Public Outings: Royalty are asked to always be appropriately attired when representing their title in public. Our preference is that you wear a white dress, shirt, or blouse when possible. We realize that isn’t always practical (eg. Tree planting, park cleaning, visiting a Pumpkin Patch, snow sledding, etc.), so use your best judgement.
- Visiting Royalty Appearances: If you are going to be visiting another pageant event, please contact their director to find out what their rules are for making appearances. Typically, most pageants will allow you to wear your sash during events and then put your crown on for the finale or after the finale. However, there are some systems that do not allow outside titles to be represented at all. Please respect their requirements. We ask that for these events you wear a white dress or white dress shirt and slacks.
- Parades: Depending on the parade and what the theme is, a white dress or white shirt and slacks might be appropriate or matching shirts and white jeans and white tennis shoes. If you are going to be walking, we recommend the white jeans approach. You will be much more comfortable. If the group is interested in ordering matching royalty shirts, we can make that happen.
- Personal Grooming: Royalty are asked to complete all dressing, hair styling and makeup application before you arrive at your appearance destination. Please always try to have a neat and tidy appearance. Remember, you are representing River City Pageant and Spokane Parks Foundation.
- Parents/Guardians/Chaperones: We ask that adults responsible for minor royalty are also well groomed and appropriately attired at functions. You are representing our organization as well.
- Inappropriate Attire: Please refrain from wearing anything with plunging necklines, side cut-outs, see-through mesh or otherwise too revealing wardrobe while representing River City Pageant.
- Sash without crown, okay: You may wear your sash without your crown on for events.
- Crown without sash, not okay: You may not wear your crown for any reason without the sash on. This crown represents your title and must be worn with the title. You may not use the crown for any other purpose than representing your title. (eg. princess photoshoots, Halloween costumes, birthday parties.)
- If in doubt, please contact our director with any wardrobe questions. Thank you and have fun!
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Royalty Sash and Crown Care
Your sashes and crowns are yours to keep forever. So, here are a few tips for taking good care of them.
- Sashes are made from a durable satin blend fabric and if they accidentally get food or something on them, a little bit of water and/or a Tide Stick should take care of it if you tend to it right away. Please do not throw in a washing machine! If you accidentally lose or irreparably damage your sash, you will be responsible for replacing it and they are usually about $35 and up to replace depending on if you have rhinestone trim or not. Royalty are responsible for all replacement or repair costs. If you make sure to keep them in a case or bag when you are not wearing them (especially while eating a meal!) then you should be just fine!
- You may also get your name embroidered on the back if you like. Please use an easy to read script font done in a matching thread color to your title. (For some that will be sky blue and others, white.) If you need a referral to someone who specializes in sash embroidery, please contact our director.
- Crowns require a little bit of tenderness to protect them as they are made of an alloy metal designed to be easy to shape and then silver plated on top. Because they are silver plated, they can discolor some over time. You should have received small polishing cloths in your gift bags and you can use them to brighten the metal back up if needed. The rhinestones are glass crystals and held in by prongs, so if one falls out, you should be able to easily find replacements at a bead store. The crowns are custom made and have to be ordered in large quantities in order to get a new batch and delivery can take up to 2 months. Our individual cost to replace a single small round crown that most of you have would be around $40 plus freight. The specialty royalty and larger crowns are quite a bit more. Royalty are responsible for all replacement or repair costs. So, please protect your crowns and keep them in a box of some sort when you are not wearing them.
- Bed, Bath, and Beyond has a nice clear Caboodles case that works well for this purpose and you can almost always find a 20% off coupon for them.
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Inviting Friends and Family to Royalty Group Events
When our royalty group participates in public events where we can invite contestant runners-up, friends and families to join us, we will let you know. For example, there might be a public park clean up activity that royalty wants to sign up for. Because it’s open to everyone, we would ask others if they would like to join our group.
Examples of when it is inappropriate to invite friends and family to join us would be when royalty are doing something planned specifically for our group. For example, the group might want to get together to see a show or a movie, go ice skating or sledding together or even hold a sleepover. These would be opportunities for the royalty to bond and having others participate in that activity would defeat the purpose of that activity.
Inviting Friends and Family to Smaller Appearance Activities
If you would like to plan an activity that only a handful of royalty are available for and it makes sense to have your families and/or friends involved, please feel free to do so. For example, a few royalty want to do a park clean-up together. Feel free to include your friends and family and wear your sash and crown for photos.
Get-togethers with Other Royalty for non-Royalty Events
Want to invite a couple of your friends out to do something together just for fun and you don’t plan on doing it as an appearance? Feel free! We strongly encourage building friendships and having fun together. Perhaps you want to invite a couple of the other royalty and their families on a picnic. Or you want to go bike-riding together. Or whatever. Enjoy!
Planning Individual Events
If you have an idea for an activity that you would like to do on your own with your title, please feel free to do so. It does not need to be limited to events supporting parks. Any community service activity that interests you is encouraged. We do request, however, that you do not participate in political events with your title.
If in doubt, please email the director first.
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Parades
Depending on the number of participants a parade allows, we might be able to invite others to join us walking next to a float. Float riding, however, is always restricted to royalty. The only exception would be if there is an event where an adult is needed on the float to supervise littles and our older royalty are not available. At this point, a parent may join the royalty on the float.
For participants ages 5 and under, a parent or other specifically responsible adult guardian chosen by a parent must walk with the float. For participants ages 6-12, we encourage parents to walk with the float, but you may designate someone else to be your adult supervision. For participants ages 13-17, you may walk with the float if you like or meet your royalty at a pre-designated location at the end of the parade. At no time will the director or other staff be authorized to supervise minors on a float. Supervision is the responsibility of a parent or guardian and participants must respect and understand this rule for the safety of their children.
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Facebook Presence ~ Royalty Page Creation
If you would like to have your own Royalty Page on Facebook, you may do so:
- Go to Create a Page
- Select Community or Public Figure
- Name Your Page something like:
- Miss River City Teen 2019
- Mr River City Prince 2019
- Miss River City Ultimate Supreme 2019
- Category should be: Personal Blog
- Upload a Profile Photo (preferably one of the shots from Monika)
- Upload a Cover Photo (Perhaps one of the lovely park photos posted on Spokane Parks Foundation’s Facebook Page.)
- Your page will be created. Click on the little gray link that says "Create Page @Username" below your profile photo. Change your user name to something like this:
- @missrivercityteen2019
- @mrrivercityprince2019
- @missrivercityultimate2019
- Personalize it in any other way you like.
- Start posting.
- Tag River City Pageant in your posts and share your posts to River City Pageant’s Facebook page.
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Royalty Handbook