This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Style Collective Conference in Raleigh North Carolina.  It was a weekend of learning, inspiration, making new friends, setting goals and having fun!  If you’ve never heard of Annie Spano, the founder of Style Collective, you are in for a treat.  Annie is the creative, petite dynamo behind the Style Collective community and she was our fearless leader for the weekend. 

The mission of Style Collective “is to empower women to live a life of passion, purpose, and authenticity by cultivating community and providing influencer education”.

Annie put together an amazing weekend packed full of inspiring panelists, speakers and so much education!  My head is still spinning from everything I learned and all of the ideas I have for Crazy Blonde Life as a result of this conference.  It was an intimate group of women who were all extremely supportive and eager to learn.  I was pleasantly surprised to meet women of all ages, which hasn’t been the case at other conferences that I’ve attended!

I loved this sign at the check-in table that greeted us the first morning.  I know that it is possible to be extremely focused on empowering women, chasing dreams and living a life of purpose, while wearing great shoes!  It doesn’t have to be one or the other!

Just to be clear, the picture on the bottom left, is a group of conference attendees (including me) having a little fun while posing as panelists!  The real panelists included Adrina Rose of Adrina Rose Media, Keke O of Style Your Selfie, Holly Boyd of Make Today a Hollyday, Courtney Inkpen of The Dainty Darling, Sara Perkins of Designer Share, Sara-Butler McKinney, representing  Kendra Scott, Angel Bailey of Beam Collective,  Jordan Blackwood representing Kendra Scott, the lovely Jessie Undorfer of Style Collective, Amanda Berlin, a PR strategy expert and last but not least, Courtney Bentley, host of the podcast, Fit Fierce Fabulous.  These panelists were an amazing lineup of talent and inspiration and they were so generous to share their wisdom with us!

No detail was forgotten, from flowers to swag bags to beautiful gifts on the table both days for lunch.

We enjoyed a delicious and beautifully presented breakfast and lunch on Saturday and Sunday. 

One of the best parts of the weekend was making new friends!

We had a cocktail party on Saturday evening and before the cocktail party, we had makeup touchups and champagne…Now that’s what I call a girls weekend!

These fun pictures were taken by ZimZoom Photo Booth.  I loved this idea and will definitely be calling them for my next party!  Everyone got in on the action and it was so much fun.  One of the best parts was that the photos were available immediately!

A group of us had dinner at Capital Club 16 on Saturday night before the cocktail party!  I highly recommend this casual bistro style restaurant.  Our food was absolutely delicious!

The weekend ended with a surprise trolley tour of downtown Raleigh, including a rooftop cocktail party at the end.  Our signature cocktail was a combination of  Cat Head Honeysuckle Vodka (made in Mississippi), ginger beer and strawberries.  I’ll definitely be recreating this one very soon.  It was so refreshing and perfect for summer!

We also stopped at two divine shops, Gypsy Jule and Form and Function, pictured above.

There were so many wonderful moments over this past weekend, and one of them was getting to meet Holly Boyd of Make Today a Hollyday!  She is one of my favorite bloggers and the sister of Anna Cate of the Anna Cate Collection, which is a clothing line that I’ve blogged about here and here.  I’ve been reading her blog for a while now she is one of the sweetest girls!

This picture was taken near the end of the day yesterday and I was feeling very blessed to have been a part of such a lovely and inspiring event.  Thanks so much for reading today and keep checking back because I have so many new ideas that you’ll love!