Sun Kissed

Justine Gonzales is a current senior at University High School and will be moving on to Arizona State University to major in Psychology in a few months. 

As many of us know, finding the perfect prom dress can be a nuisance. Most of us are lucky if we find a nice dress that fits nicely to our shapes a couple days before the big night.

Justine, though, went into prom shopping with a $40 budget, adding another challenge to the hunt for a dress and shoes.

"My mom gave me a $40 limit, and I was like, 'What? All my friends are getting their dresses for $100."

As she was in line at Charlotte Russe about to purchase another dress for a different formal event, she saw a blue dress that matched her blue nail polish that day.

"It was in the distance, behind these other dresses," she said.

When Justine mentioned this, both Gabee and I, in unison, said, "Aww..." because it reminded us of something straight out of a romance movie:

It was, indeed, love at first sight with Justine and her prom dress.

It was like when Rose jumps off the emergency boat to be with Jack, and she tells him," You jump, I jump, remember?"

And everyone else trying to keep her away from Jack are parallel to all the other dresses that keep you from being with the one you long!

So when Justine "jumped" out of line, she was on her way to be with the blue dress (who's Jack in the case) she longed to have all along.

Back to the blog: Justine reminded us of a mermaid, but she described her look as simple.

Her dress was embellished by glitter "flames" circling the right side of the dress resembling a sun.

Before going into prom, Justine looked forward to dancing the Cupid Shuffle because, as she says, "it's always a fun song to dance to."

But if her entire outfit could sing, it would make her sway to We Are Young by Fun., and to us, she would sway to Under the Sea featured in The Little Mermaid.

"[Prom] wasn't like the movies," Justine said. "I watched 'Prom the Movie' last year instead of going to prom. It wasn't like that."

Justine got her hair done at the beauty school inside Desert Sky Mall located on 75th and Thomas.

Dress - Charlotte Russe, $25 plus tax

Shoes - Payless, $10 plus tax

Earrings - Claires, $6.50

Necklace - Tiffany & Co., Her Mom's, $0

Hairdo and Makeup - Desert Sky Mall International Academy of Hair Design, $22