Afternoon guys and gals! So it's March in two days... already! Which means this is Jackie's Month! She will be strutting her beautifulness up the aisle very shortly - WOWZAS! Where has the time gone?! Besides us all getting excited for Jackie B, I have been pretty busy DIY'ing since my last post, which caused a bit of a stir (ech hem), so this time I am bringing the wedding love back to something girly, our pretty little nails (and maybe even your mans-mani)! Today we are going to explore all things wonderful about a good-looking set of pinkies with lots of ogling rather than reading!

Nail colour and style on my W-day is up there as *highly important*, infact I would place importance on a good nail colour over lippy any day and I am rarely without a colour on my pinkies and tootsies. I think those hours of filing and painting as a teen were the foundation of my nail love affair - lame I hear you shouting from up there! My love affair has been tainted since moving to NZ though; I have been plagued with these awful, peely, stunted-growth nails that nothing seems to fix. You name the vitamin, mineral or over priced 'drops', I have probably tried it in an attempt to overcome my pinky concerns in time for W-day. Do any of you gals struggle with poorly pinkies? How many other brides are trying everything to make their nails luscious and are running out of time before that wide angled camera snaps your bling? Well...I am on to a solution...slowly. The following products have started to beat the peel for me and I highly recommend investing; Sibu Buckthorn, Cuticle Oil, that is not almond for a change, Leighton Denny Buff Stick and Sarah Chapman Night Hand Cream (the only trouble with this, is the packet is tinnnnny :)). So with the above bringing some rampant progress and my timetable for pedis and medis what's a medi? in place (because I'm jumping on the bridal bandwagon of countdown-essential-manis and pedis) I am holding up hope! Other than the obvious i.e. Calcium, moisturisation, Vitamin E, Vitamin D, Zinc, yadda yadda yadda, here are some other tips that you may/may not have thought about

• Wear rubber gloves when you do the dishes - or buy a dishwasher (extreme), or get fiancé to do them (more logical).
• This is kind of obvious but it has to be said - eat well, sleep well, drink well (that doesn't include champers), your nails will thank you and your skin too!
• Olive oil is a superb moisturiser, slightly heated it's quite relaxing, try rubbing that on your nails - but don't go burning yourself!
• Lemon juice - mix it with olive oil then rub onto your fingernails. Or lemon juice mixed with sea salt then brushed onto nails and leave for 15-20 minutes.
• Sea salt is fortifying so mix a tablespoon of sea salt into warm water and submerge your pinkies for 20 minutes or so.
• Beeswax - this is gross, but, 'apparently', if you mix the mashed yolk of a hardboiled egg with beeswax, then rub it on your fingers... it makes them strong?! NO I am not trying to make all the RMW readers do something daft, I actually read this on a beauty blog!
• Some blogs recommend starting regular manicures (i.e. fortnightly) six months pre wedding, but not everyone will be able to do this so I would say do what you can ☺ I am trying once a month with my own home inventions in-between.
• This is kind of obvious but have a trial before the day, because I actually had not thought about this!

What about colour and style? This is the best bit! Lolly did a post last year on W-day nails and so many brides to be were going for hot red nails, some green and some blue. I love that. Banish the French Mani I say! What about brand? You will have your fav - what is it?

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What about shellac? Will you shellac it for the duration of the wedding and honeymoon? Or take the opportunity to mix your colours as much as you can and pamper with a resort medi/pedi? Personally, I despise shellac. It is probably because the first time I had it, the lovely lady didn't tell me what you had to go through to get it off. So six weeks after our holiday to Hawaii, when my nails were still hot pink (something I was more than impressed with at the time) I decided it was time for a winter shade. At this point we were living in a small town, with maybe one beauty therapist, who most likely didn't have that drill thing they use to remove the shellac. I must have obliterated 80 cotton wool pads before realising, 'this ain't moving'. I turned to Google, as you do, to find that the best home remedy for removing shellac is soaking pinkies in acetone. What a palaver. So I wont touch the stuff again

That's an awful lot of nails above isn't it? If you like the heart nails check it out here. Hopefully it has sparked the inspiration in one or two of you! As mentioned at the start of my post I have been busy, DIY'ing the crap out of this wedding and I intended to share my progress with you in todays post. But some amazing customer service turned my attention to wedding nails. I was at my local department store, I rocked up to the 'nail section' and was dipping and dabbling sticks and bits of card in various shades. The young girl was so helpful when I told her I was testing out the perfect polish for my wedding, to the point she let me take the tester polishes that were my fav! I have been pretty blown away by the impeccable customer service of all the vendors I have engaged with actually, from something as small as a beauty clerk, 'cake-topper-maker', 'guestbook creator' or keep sake provider! In particular, Freya Rose have been amazing (god I want their gold leaf shoe clips!), Silhouette Weddings, infact pretty much any vendor on Etsy and Papillon Designs who offer amazing beautiful, personal keepsakes to remember special occasions. They make original designs in 3D (all of which can be personalised) set in deep, box frames. You could create a unique 'guest book frame' with hearts set in 3D? Your guests could write messages on the heart designs which could be designed and framed! I digress through excitement and I might even have to do that idea myself!

So back over to you girls! How important are your W-day nails to you? A 2014 RMW Real Bride who shall remain nameless, has tried that many of OPI's pink polishes in an attempt to find the perfect W-Day hue; she now basically owns shares in the company Are you going to be different? Or do you think bold is inappropriate? (If so, here are some neutrals to try ) Share the nail love girls!