I am a wife and mama of two, living abroad in Abu Dhabi and traveling the world with my family. It’s safe to say, I do my fair share of packing. Putting together suitcases for myself, my husband, and my two kiddos on a regular basis is quite an involved process!
Why I Developed the Palette Packing Strategy
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Over the past few years of traveling with my family, I’ve found a huge passion for travel photography, and stretching myself to capture the details of our trips creatively and beautifully. I think we can all agree that we live in a content-focused culture, where experiences are no longer just about living them, but about sharing them with our communities on social media. And while the locales that we visit are picturesque, I’ve learned along the way that our wardrobe has a big impact on our photos — which is why I developed the strategy I use now, which I call Palette Packing. (I should really copyright that soon!)
Not only does it help me pack, but it gives me some direction overall of what to photograph while we’re on our trip!
How to Pick the Perfect Picture-Taking Spots
After we choose a trip location and get a general sense of which cities we’ll be visiting, I begin researching our destinations on Instagram. I use the geotag feature to check out the different places we’ll want to visit and to get an idea of what the area is like. I create a dedicated Saved folder to work as a visual inspiration board and gather all of my favorite content and places to visit there to refer to later, and a general color palette begins to take shape. I identify from photos of the location whether I’m aiming for warm colors, cool colors, or neutrals, and from there I narrow it down to a more cohesive color story. A few days before the trip (or up to a week before, if it’s a big one), I start pulling coordinating pieces from our closets and laying them out on the bed. If only I could be like Cher in Clueless and see my outfits on a computer generated screen!
Eventually, I can start to see outfits coming together that complement each other, and make stacks of a complete outfit for each of us. These stacks get folded up and put into their own packing cube, which is especially helpful when we’re staying in one more location (there are few things I enjoy less on vacation than repacking our suitcase over and over!).
Austin, Texas Photography Palette
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The first time I did this, I was planning a girls’ trip with one of my best friends to Austin, Texas. My best friend Amanda and I both love fun style and design, and came up with this idea to travel in style and pack our bags using a coordinating color palette. After coming up with a list of restaurants, pools, and shopping areas we wanted to visit, we narrowed our color story down to a warm palette of blush pink, rust, and mustard. Though we were living 700 miles apart and hadn’t seen each other in months (or any of each others’ outfits in person), when we arrived in Austin, we had both packed to perfectly complement each other and the locations we visited. From then on, I was hooked! (You can see our Austin photo gallery here.)
Greece Photography Palette
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For our most recent trip to Greece, I knew we would be spending a lot of time in Santorini, which is known for its whitewashed, Cycladic style buildings, scenic coastline, and blue-domed churches. We decided to travel in style with a cool-toned palette of light blues, neutrals, and whites. And while I might drive my husband just a little bit crazy with my wardrobe planning, it’s safe to say we’re both really happy with how our travel photos turned out! (You can see our Greece photo gallery here.)
Here are some more examples of our trip galleries, as my Palette Packing has evolved — see if you can figure out what our packing palette was for Abu Dhabi, Hawaii, Seattle, Southern California, and Vegas!
Are you as absolutely in love with Brigitte’s packing by color guide as we are? Ready to travel in style? Let us know in the comments below!
About Brigitte Erwin
Brigitte Erwin is a travel and mamahood influencer from California, living the expat life in Abu Dhabi. Wife to her best friend and mama of two children under 5, she loves inspiring others to experience the world, and does it all with style, humor, and transparency. She and her husband Scott (“Scigitte” is their power couple name) have been all over the world, both with kids and without, and love experiencing each location’s unique attributes.
IG: @scigitte
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