Wedding season is officially here, and Hudson Valley brides don’t have to go all the way to New York City to do their shopping.

Laura’s Boutique and Bridal in Carmel is the largest bridal shop in the Hudson Valley, selling custom wedding dresses for brides of all shapes and sizes. The store idea started as the dream of one little girl from Montenegro.

"I never really wanted to be anything else more than a designer," said Laura Rudovic, owner of Laura's Boutique and Bridal. "As a kid, I made every one of my family members get dressed up as a bride. I literally used to use them to model and be my little pretend brides. I would take any kind of fabric around the house just to create wedding dresses.”

After immigrating to the United States and eventually studying law in college, Rudovic decided to turn her dream into a reality. She opened Laura’s Boutique and Bridal in 2021, making it the exclusive home to her own wedding dress line, "Dream Couture Bridal." The name not only symbolizes Laura's American Dream, but also the effort she puts into each wedding dress to make them into dresses that brides-to-be have dreamed of since they were little girls.

"You have to be able to sort out the correct fabrics," she said. "You have to be able to make sure that the lace and the patterns are going a certain way to flatter different types of women and different types of figures.”

When it comes to creating her designs, Laura's inspiration is her customers.

“They could come in and literally we can design their own dress," she said. "Every day I work with them [and] I just take in everything they tell me, like, 'I wish there were more gowns that had sleeves in it,' or 'I wish people would design something that had a little bit more of a removable skirt so I could wear a tight dress underneath and have a ball gown overlay.'”

Within the past three years, Laura and her line have risen in the industry. Her designs have been featured in New York Bridal Fashion Week, on a billboard in Times Square and in Vogue Magazine.

"It's been so amazing. It's like unreal," Rudovic gushed. "I'm still digesting everything. I've dressed a lot of celebrities and it's just a whirlwind."

Despite her rise within the bridal industry, however, Laura said it’s the blushing brides of the Hudson Valley that make her continue spreading that bridal magic.

“There's no other place in the world that I'd rather be than in the Hudson Valley," she said. "I love being here. I love this community…I'm so proud to have my line here. I feel like a lot of people feel that you have to drive far and go far to get luxury and affordable prices and high-quality gowns, but no, it's right here at home.”

As her designs continue to come to life, Laura aspires to make many more dreams come true for brides in the Hudson Valley. She also has a prom section of the store, with some of the dresses also being a part of her "Dream Couture" line.

Laura's Boutique and Bridal is located at 1707 US-6 in Carmel.