Wedding Beauty {Nails}

We've forgone the traditional wedding venue and have opted to have our ceremony and reception in our garden at home in Noordhoek instead, we designed our own 'save the dates' and invitations, we're making all our own wedding decor, food will be a big, family affair (my mom is making one of our cakes and we've asked family members and friends to pitch in to help make salads for our wedding feast), the tables and benches we'll be using will be loaned to us by the Earth Fair Market at Noordhoek Village (thank you, thank you! I so love our new little community!), we've only invited roughly 40 guests, and I'll be 33 weeks pregnant on the day we exchange our vows, so it's fairly obvious that ours is going to be a very un-traditional wedding indeed!

Given that our wedding ceremony isn't likely to be described as 'traditional', I'm toying with the idea of giving traditional wedding nail colours like pale pinks and soft nudes the skip in favour of more vibrant, bold shades. Since a bride's hands (her left ring finger, in particular!) are very much the focus on the day, I think that opting for something altogether different on your nails is a nice little twist... and will certainly brighten up the obligatory bouquet and wedding ring shots! The wedding day nail colour hunt has officially begun - please let me know if you come across any gorgeous, yet unexpected, nail shades that could work well for a wedding! In the meantime, here are a few ideas I nicked off Pinterest.

Although these pretty pink shades from essie are to be expected for a wedding, I think they'd work particularly well with our colour theme for the wedding. The second beauty on the left is my favourite out of the four.

Orange is arguably the colour of 2012 and I think that essie 'Haute as Hello' is a gorgeous, gentle take on this bold colour trend. This would work so well with the dress I have in mind!

 

I'm not a big glitter girl, but this beautiful khaki-ish shade with gold flecks is so up my alley! What's more, it's a perfect match to my ring!

Ah, Chanel 'Holiday'. Quite possibly my all-time favourite nail colour. I wore this on my toes non-stop during last summer (yes, it is an entire season old!), and it was the first shade I pulled out of my nail colour collection when Spring arrived (or didn't arrive, if you live in Cape Town!) The fact that I wear this shade religiously all the time time already almost puts me off using it on my wedding day, but isn't your wedding day all about looking like you, but only more beautiful? So why not paint your nails in your favourite nail colour... ever?

 

I remember being treated to a pedicure at The Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa a little while ago and falling head over heels (or toes, rather?) in love with this magnificent shade from essie, called 'Boathouse'. I guess you could say that this shade was the beauty that finally forced me to ditch the nude and dark nails in favour of something a little brighter, and as I'm sure you can tell from the above, oranges became a firm favourite after one chance encounter with this beauty. I love that it's still vibrant and eye-catching, but not quite as in-your-face as Chanel 'Holiday', for example. I've been looking for this beauty on and off for months and can never seem to find it in salons. Maybe it'll be my lucky month and I'll be reunited with my first orange love at long last. This shade would certainly pretty up my wedding day! 

What nail colour did you wear on your wedding day? Please feel free to share brands and shade names in the comments section, or e-mail me a photograph of your wedding nails - who knows, if I receive enough images it might make for an interesting blog post?