Operation Duggar Nail Party

Last week on 19 Kids and Counting, Britney Armer hosted a Jamberry nail party for the Duggar women. How did the ladies interact at the party? What colors did they choose for their manicures? What was Johannah's reaction to having her nails done? Britney was kind enough to write a guest blog post about her afternoon with the Duggars. 

I know the family because of mutual friends. Anna and I were really close before she moved to D.C. Jill I met when she was a doula's apprentice and helped with the birth of my 2nd baby. She also helped as a midwife's apprentice (with Venessa- my best friend) with the birth of my 3rd.  

Venessa sent me the invitation to Jill’s wedding shower. Immediately, my mind began to work, trying to figure out what to buy Jill and Derrick as a wedding gift. After talking to Venessa for a while about it, I decided against something off their registry or just something nice from the store. They had been so blessed beyond words by all their friends and family already! So what do you give the girl who doesn’t need anything? You give a service.

I hadn’t been with Jamberry very long at this point, only about 8 weeks. Business was great though, and I had some free product I could redeem for them. I offered to give the bridal party their wedding manicures. I chatted with Jana, Michelle, Jill, and Jinger at the shower, and it was settled. Operation Jamberry for Duggars was a go!

The girls chose White Tips and Gold Crisscross, and I ordered the few sheets we needed. When I learned that the party would be filmed (something I didn’t know about up to this point), I contacted Jamberry to make sure I knew how to handle it! Jamberry was so excited about this opportunity that they donated thousands of dollars’ worth of product for the party! I was so excited!

The day came and set up began! We had the party at Venessa’s house in her living room. We cleared out the wedding flowers they were working on and started unpacking. The room was soon filled with ribbons, and application kits, and Jamberry Mini Heaters, and wraps, and lacquers arranged just right. We ran power strips down the center of the table for the Mini Heaters and prayed the breakers didn’t blow a fuse!

Finally, it was time! The youngest was Johanna, and we had all the older girls too- Joy, Jinj, Jessa, Jill, Anna, Jana, Michelle, then Grandma afterwards and Amy on the day of the wedding.

The girls shuffled through the dozens of designs available. Some were drawn to the lacquer lines. Some wanted bright. Some wanted classic. Michelle couldn’t choose, so she decided to try them ALL (or just nearly)! Jill, Anna and Jana decided to go with White Tips. Jill loved the other designs, but told me that she wanted her engagement ring to be the center of attention, not her manicure. Jinger went a little more bold, with Mint Green & Gold Horizontal Pinstripe. Johannah chose Hint of Mint Lacquer. The other girls chose their designs and we were off!

I explained the application process, then they got started. Everyone did really well! Anna, Jana, and Jill cranked out their manicures in just a little bit, then went on to help some of the other girls.

I'm loud, so I was told several times by the camera crew to be quiet. Having me mic'd is a poor choice ;) I'm the friend you don't put on speaker phone. It was quiet for the most part. There were a few conversations going around the table- like one with Anna and Jill about Jill's impending first kiss with Derrick. Anna asked Jill if she was nervous or wanted any pointers. Jill said she wasn't nervous at all and was confident that she would figure it out.

My best memory of the entire day was seeing Michelle with her finished manicure. She had a different color and design on every finger! Her choices ranged from sparkles, to metallics, to clear wraps over lacquers, and more! The best part was when she backed up and saw her pinky nails. She chose to layer White Min Polka over Blush lacquer. She had been so excited the whole party, but the minute she saw those polka dots, she squealed like a little girl and bounced up and down in her chair! She kept giggling and saying, “My polka dots! I just LOVE them!” 

Hanny was cold and tired during the party. She hugged her Jamberry Mini Heater and tried to warm up. She eventually fell asleep on the couch. All the wedding hubbub is hard on the young ones. She LOVED the nails though!  Time flew by, and before we knew it, they were off on another wedding adventure! I started cleaning up the party and heard a knock at the door. Grandma Duggar came in and got the royal one-on-one treatment. We had a nice chat, she got her Silver Floral wraps over Frosting lacquer, and she left. 

Amy Duggar had to work the day of the party. I sent an application kit and several sheets of wraps home with Grandma Duggar to give to her. Grandma said she just hoarded the wraps and Amy never got hers. So after she got her hair done, she applied Vintage Chic, Blush Lacquer under Gold Fishnet, and Mint Green & Gold Horizontal Pinstripe. 

After the party, I packed up all the leftover Jamberry goodies, packed them in gift bags and sent took them to the family. One bag went to Jill, one to the family, and one to Anna.

The day of the wedding came, and Michelle called me. She decided that her manicure choices were going to outshine the bride. She took them off, and there in the bridal suite, she redid her manicure to be more appropriate for the mother of the bride. Jinger also had her non-Jamberry pedicure get damaged, so we got her a White Tip pedicure wrap to cover up the damage.