Candice grew up watching her grandmother, who was raised in Mexico and immigrated to the United States, work on gowns as a master seamstress. While watching her grandmother work, she learned to do some of the beading and hand sewing, because she showed such an interest in it. When she wasn’t working on sewing or beading, she would sketch her own designs.

“I started designing without even knowing it,” Gonzales said. “For my eighth-grade promotion, I designed my dress, and it went on from there.”

After getting a degree in fashion design, Gonzales worked at a boutique that specialized in dresses for the mother of the bride, but Gonzales said she wanted to focus on the main event, the bride.