Hi! Thank you for stopping by Forge A Frenzy! Don’t forget to follow along on social media for updates on the daily happenings of my life – @MadisonCrowley ♥

So, today I went out on a limb and decided to go to the Bachelor casting call that was happening a few miles from my house. I had a lot of expectations of what the day would look like and some were super accurate and others were definitely not. I hope you enjoy this recap of my experience with the Bachelor!

♥

I almost didn’t go through with this experience because I truly had no idea what to wear. Professional? Casual? Boho? Fancy? How do I stand out and make an impression but also stay true to myself…? All of these things were going through my head and so I settled on my favorite pair of Joe’s skinny jeans with a sexy-ish open + flowy top with one of my favorite dainty gold lariat necklaces and paired it with one of my go-to pairs of shoes – nude peep toes with a block heel. I felt like myself and I liked it.

How I wanted to go to the casting: 
How I went to the casting:

According to the website, the casting call started at 1 and went until 5. From the few articles/posts I had read on the casting calls, lines were long and time went by super slow. I was anticipating standing around and waiting for a while, being ushered to and from. With that in mind, I wanted to get there super early to hopefully secure a place towards the front of the line so that I didn’t spend my whole Saturday on this experience. It takes under 20 minutes to get from Huntington Beach to Costa Mesa so I left a little after 11 and got there before 11:30. Since the casting call was at a hotel, the parking was all very well laid out and clear. Parking is always my biggest problem when it comes to getting places that I have never been before.

I parked, re-did my lipstick and started walking towards the building. I was kind of expecting there to be a lot of signage directing people to where the casting call was taking place. I was also expecting a huge crowd of girls that would lead me to where the sign-in was. I was wrong. And I was very early. I walked up to the front desk and asked where the casting call for the Bachelor was. He gave me directions to the room that it was in and I followed the directions up the elevator and down the hall towards the doors that led into a grand reception hall.

The hall was filled with circular tables and chairs that were tucked in and a long table at the end of the room. I walked in and immediately started surveying the other girls that were there. They were SO PRETTY. And then there were your girls who were wearing basically a skin tight tank top dress carrying their miniature dog. Not that I can really comment on the miniature dog situation.

I walked up to the table and was handed an info packet to fill out as well as release forms to sign. I was also given a number, 24. I walked back towards a table with a couple girls sitting at it and started filling out the questionnaire.

“Do you have any special talents?”
“Previously engaged?”
“Kids?” and then,
“Are you genuinely looking to get married & why?” which was given like a tenth of line… Ummm hello I would really like to write you a novel on why I am genuinely looking to get married. Thanks.

Anyways, after I filled out the questionnaire and signed my life away, I walked back up to the front and handed her my packet to review and then she handed it back and told me to get my photo taken. I walked over towards the guy with the camera and the girl in front me started chatting with me about her outfit and the experience so far. When it was my turn, I wrote my first and last name as well as my phone number on a dry erase board and held it up for a photo. He then took a headshot and a full body shot. It was fast and efficient. Impersonal, if you will, but everyone was super nice. I mean, how personal can you get when you’re going to see 1,000 eager, similar looking girls throughout the day.

Once I finished that, I was told to head towards the tables at the back of the room near the door. I was seriously in awe of some of the girls who were seated at the tables and mingling around. I mean, beautiful doesn’t even describe some of them!!! Perfect hair and bodies and bubbly personalities. A Bachelor producer’s dream. (I’m assuming.)

Next, a woman who seemed super in-charge called numbers 1-15 to go with her and the rest of us remained seated. By this time it was a little after noon and I was surprised that they were starting so soon! A couple minutes passed and the same in-charge woman came back and called 16-25. I got up and followed her through a hallway and into a seating area of sorts where there were about 7-ish doors with chairs lined up next to them. I was seated by a door and waited for the interview portion of the event. I chatted with the girls around me who were all super nice and I was trying really hard to be present and take in the experience. I was called into a room near me and was met by a super nice woman, shook her hand, and entered in. She had a dog in the room who I fawned over and shared about Boston and we bonded over our dogs. We actually talked a lot about dogs and rescuing them and her pets all of that. Super easy conversation. While we were talking, she was putting a mic on me and adjusting a camera towards me. It wasn’t a huge production camera, more like a camera your Dad would use to film your soccer game, but it could have been way nicer and I just didn’t know it.

The camera intimidated me much more than I was expecting. I wasn’t sure what to look at, her or the camera, and I was hyper focused on the fact that everything I was saying someone could re-watch. I was taken aback by how thrown off I was with the camera and the next thing I knew she was hitting record and I was holding up another dry erase board with my first and last name and my phone number sprawled across it. She asked me my name, age, location, and occupation. I was genuinely afraid I was going to forget the order or mess up. Mess up my name? I mean come on Madison. Thankfully I didn’t!!!

We continued into the interview and I would like to say that I became more at ease with the camera as the minutes passed, but that’s not the case. She would ask me a question and I would respond promptly and I didn’t really elaborate on any of my answers. Looking back, I feel like there was so much more than I could have said. But that’s always the case when you look back on situations. She asked things like “Have you been watching the current season? Do you have any favorites? Why do you want to be on the Bachelor? What do you like to do in your spare time?” I had lots of answers prepared for the questions and once the camera was on I kind of forgot everything that I had planned to say. The last question she asked was if there was anything else that I felt they should know about me, which is pretty much the hardest question ever to answer!!! She had me stand at the end of the interview and when I did, I stepped on the chord that was connected to my mic and it fell off of me, which was super embarrassing. She zoomed in and got a close-up and a photo and asked me how tall I was with a look of almost admiration. In my head I was thinking, “Why the HECK did I wear these heels!!!!!”

When we were done, I exclaimed that I was so nervous and she responded by saying that she couldn’t tell at all and that I looked super natural behind the camera. She might have been lying, who knows, but I’m going to pretend I didn’t look like a nervous wreck.

She finished the time by saying that they weren’t sure who the next Bachelor was going to be (oh reallllyyyyyy…..) and that if they felt I was a good fit for them that they would give me a call. I said thank you and I appreciated their time and left the room. As I was leaving, crowds of girls were filing into the ballroom, about to start the process that I had just completed. I smiled and headed down the elevator, fighting feelings of disappointment in myself for not answering the questions more fully or showing more of my personality with the people that I had met. I have found that when you are so focused on making yourself shine through and stand out, it often holds you back from doing just that.

BUT, all of that being said, I am super happy that I went and that I was able to experience something that is a part of a show I love so much. I went into it with no expectation of being chosen for the show, but really to be bold and to be able to recap the experience for my readers! I am growing into being a super confident person, which I love about myself. But in situations like this it is easy for me to retract into myself and be more of a silent observer. I would not say I am at all reserved but I am not one to fight for attention or brag about myself and my accomplishments. I had a list of things I would have loved for them to know about me but blurting out random facts that I think set me apart, really isn’t in my nature. Still, super glad that I went and I’m happy that I get to give you guys some insight.

Have any of you guys been to a Bachelor casting call? Had a super awesome experience? I would LOVE to hear! Thanks for reading babes. ♥

‘Til next time,