Wedding nails?

You could get a manicure with shellac. It’s basically nail polish but upgraded. So it will last longer. It would by the safest since you work in healthcare. With the dip it’s still on the lines of acrylic. However, if you want you could consider press on nails. You could wear them the weekend of your wedding and take them off easily.

Gel for me lasts about 2 weeks but it started to lift and would get caught it my hair. Dip lasted 3 weeks, I probably could’ve gone longer but my nails were so grown out they were driving me crazy. I’ve gotten acrylic too and those have lasted 4 weeks for me. All of those do make your nails brittle afterwards, so if you’re trying to avoid that the only one I might recommend is dip as it wasn’t as bad as the others.
DIY options, I use Color Street. If you just google them the website should come up. They’re basically like stickers but made with real nail polish and come of with remover. They’ve lasted up to 2 weeks on my nails and are not damaging.
So dip would be my expensive and professional recommendation (this is what I’m doing for my wedding) and Color Street would be my cost saving DIY recommendation (this is what I use on a regular basis). Hope this helps! I love nail stuff!

I had a gel French manicure on my natural nails. It lasted the wedding and honeymoon (and for a little while afterwards). It didn't mess up my nails at all. I did grow mine out a little before the wedding, but not a lot, because they annoy me when they're too long.

I have nails similar to yours. I would recommend to just get a regular manicure. They have a “gel top coat” which helps it last longer but it’s still just regular polish. I loved the color “limo-scene” by essie. It was so subtle and matched my ivory lace dress. This was all done at a local nail salon on Friday morning, my wedding was Saturday. It lasted my entire honeymoon.. I just went back and looked at pics and zoomed in on my hands hahah


9 days after manicure

I keep my natural nails a square shape, but that often leads to the corner breaking once they grow out a bit (I also type all day, which doesn't help lol). I just know that even if I somehow manage to grow out my natural nails to where I like them, they'd end up breaking close to the wedding day, and I'd either have to cut them down (and I can't stand them being short) or I'd be annoyed with one or two being misshapen. To avoid all of that, I'm planning to get acrylics done a day or two before the wedding. I'd rather they looked flawless on the one day where my hands will be photographed the most and then just grow out any damage.

If you do want to do something more natural, I think getting a regular manicure a day or two before would be fine. Like Ashley, I love Color Street whenever I DIY my nails. Their glitter colors are totally opaque without being super thick like regular polish. I'd just recommend getting a few sets and practicing a lot before doing your nails on the big day.

You would have the advantage of only doing your nails a time or two before the wedding. This would not affect your nails as much as those of us doing it more often. The nails should go back to regular strength soon.