All the former Mrs. CO America queens have different body types - just like when you are choosing the wedding dress of your dreams, you want a dress that looks beautiful on your body.  Sometimes we fall in love with a dress that is in a picture but the reality comes crashing down when we try on the dress because we have a different body type than the model wearing the dress in the photo.  Here are a few tips when choosing an evening gown:

1. Try the dress on your body.  Do not buy a dress online because the model looks incredible in the dress.  Unless you have the exact same body type and skin tone, the dress will look different. Get in the dress.

2. Follow the basic dress rules.  Some body styles look better in certain dress cuts.  Follow the rules 80% of the time and you will not go wrong. 

3. Keep the focus on you and not the dress.  Sometimes a dress over powers the gal in the dress.  You want to eyes of the judges to stay on you not the dress.  We call that the dress wore the girl vs. the other way around.  

4. You must feel beautiful.  You can ask everyone's opinion but if you do not feel like a million dollars in the dress, you never will.  Once you are onstage, you are the only person who can 'sell' the look so you must love it.  That is how ladies win a dress that sometimes people do not like - it's because they 'sold' the dress/look/themselves to the judges.