Packing for Nashville

Well, I made it back from Nashville! It was crazy busy to say the least. And I'm talking busy from 8am to midnight. I had two posts scheduled to go live last week and I was hopeful that I would have just a little bit of downtime to be able to put together a post throughout the week that I could then schedule for Friday. As you can see, that didn't happen. I was a bit foolish to think that I would have time, but oh well. Sorry for not preparing you for my absence! I hate not having a normal schedule for you guys, but things happen that aren't in my control, so i can't stress out about that! As promised, I do still want to give you a thorough recap of last week's festivities including what I wore and what I did. That would make for quite a lengthy post, so I am going to split them up into two posts. This post is all about my logic for packing - why I packed what I did based on the agenda I was given.  This also serves as a nice spring time capsule type post. I've done others like these in the past, but this one was geared towards fall and this one was geared towards winter. I've been wanting to do a similar post for spring, so let's get started!

The pieces: 
Anorak jacket (option) | Neutral blazer (option, option) | Dress coat | Denim vest  (option) | Cocktail Dress (exact) | Chambray top | Moto cardigan (exact) | Flyaway cardigan (exact) | Peplum top (exact) | Camo tee (exact) | Grey scoopneck top (exact) | Stripe tank tunic (exact) | Olive floral top (exact c/o CS Gems) | Black tank | Solid black leggings (exact) | Camo leggings (exact) | Grey skinnies (exact) | Black skinnies (exact) | Skinny jeans (exact) | Tote (exact) | Gold clutch | Wine colored cross body (similar) | Grey boots (exact style in other colors here) | Leopard booties (exact) | Neutral pumps (exact) | Converse (exact) | Gold drop earrings (exact) | Gold cuff (exact) | Simple gold pendant (exact) | Adjustable silver pendant (exact)

Ok, first a disclaimer. Some of the items that are pictured above are not the exact items that I physically own, and that's because the stock photos for the exact item I do own is either no longer available, or it's worn on a model which does not make for great outfit building graphics I created for this post. However, if the item I own is still available, I've linked to it above and identified it as "exact." So basically, the items pictured above and below are for rough representation and design intent only!! 

Second, here is some weather and destination info. The convention was set in Nashville, TN at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. We were staying from Saturday morning through Friday morning, driving not flying. The weather was supposed to be lows in the 40s with highs in the 60s.

What were we doing there? HUGE company convention. I'll get more into the details of that in my second post, but I knew there would be TONS of walking because these Gaylord properties are no joke. The attire was "cafe casual" which means we are, in fact, allowed to wear jeans. There was only one event that was formal, but for the most part, everything was pretty laid back. I knew I would spend the bulk of the first half of our trip working on our booth, so I needed clothes I could sweat in. I planned on doing some Pilates while I was there, so I wanted to make sure I brought clothes that I could work out in, too, if time allowed.

I didn't really try on any outfits in advance like I normally do, but that's a) because I've worn some of these outfits for the blog already so I knew they worked (like this and this). I really just wanted to make sure that the pieces from those two outfits would easily mix and match with other pieces. For example, each top needed to pair easily with each pair of bottoms I brought. Each shoe needed to work with all tops and bottoms as well - for the most part anyway. I certainly wasn't going to wear my Chucks with a cocktail dress!

The cocktail dress and the dress coat were the only two pieces that I knew could only be worn for our formal dinner. I did want to make sure my pumps were neutral in case I needed to be in heels for any other outfit. The weather was going to be in the perfect "light layer" zone, so I could get away with not having to bring a heavy jacket, but I did want to make sure my cardigans and anorak jacket would basically coordinate with everything I brought. The chambray is also a good alternative for a light layer and acts in the same way a denim jacket could, which is great because a denim jacket was one less thing I needed to pack!

As I'm tying this, I realized I brought my grey Chucks not the black ones I have pictured. Oops! Black would work just as well as you can see. I am not really sure I had much reasoning around picking grey other than they blended better with my grey skinnies and camo leggings better than the harsh black.

I decided to go with two good pairs of stack heeled boots. They give me the height I need, but they're comfy for long distance walking. I did add some foot petals to my new leopard boots and I survived walking 5 miles in them. As far as accessories, my Longchamp tote is the perfect carry all bag for travel since it folds up flat but carries a ton of stuff. The wine colored crossbody gave me just the right amount of color pop I needed, and the gold clutch was mainly for the formal night, but I knew I could take it for cocktails, too, if I needed. I kept my jewelry pretty minimal. Just my favorite pieces I already wear all the time for both dressy and casual outfits.

Based on these outfits I threw together for this post, I knew going into it that I had at least 20 outfits I was able to wear for the 6 days we were there. That's a pretty good reserve with enough variety  especially since I wasn't 100% positive what we would be doing in the evenings. Overall, I was pretty happy with everything that I packed! You can see those exact outfits later this week!

We drove this trip, so I didn't have to worry about liquids or carry-ons or anything like that, which helped eliminate just a little bit of stress! However, if you're wanting more detail about what's in my carry on bag when I do have to hop on a plane, you can get that entire scoop here!

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