Hundreds of prom dresses line the walls of Laura's Boutique and Bridal, patiently waiting for the next high schooler to choose them as their dream gown.

"Prom is super fun because you can do different colors [and] mess with different fabrics," said Laura Rudovic, the owner of the shop. "There's millions and millions of styles and fabrics and different stones and beadings you could work with."

News 12 first met Rudovic to learn about her wedding dress designs in 2024, learning how her love of designing started when she was just a little girl in Montenegro.

"I loved designing gowns," she said. "I literally took my mother's wedding gown and chopped it up because I wanted to redesign it. I was five years old, and ended up wearing it on my sixth birthday."

While her fascination with wedding dresses came first, Rudovic actually started her designing journey by creating prom gowns.

"I did prom dresses first because I was able to make a lot of them myself," she explained. " I quit my job at the bank, [thinking] 'let me take this chance.' The [first] store was like 500 square feet on the first floor of my parents' house."

From her parent’s house to eventually finding her current spot in Carmel, Rudovic's boutique has certainly grown within the past decade. It now holds two floors worth of wedding and prom dresses mixed with her designs, as well as others. All of her designs are grouped under one label: Dream Couture, signifying her journey from Montenegro to the United States during the Bosnian War of 1992, and working her way up in the fashion world.

"It's a dream; It's the American dream," she said. "I was seven years old...and we were lucky enough to land in New York, which is the fashion capital of the world. At the time, I had no idea where I was going, but I felt like I [was] meant to be here. I feel like this is my home...The opportunities that you have here, you don't have anywhere else in the world. Being in New York is literally it. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere."

That dream lead to Rudovic's designs being featured in Vogue and Glamour, which she said is "surreal."

"To be featured in [Vogue] is like a one in a million type of shot," she said. "When they contacted me [saying], 'We're going to feature you," I honestly couldn't believe it. I had to verify that it was real. Once I did, I was super, super excited."

However, the best part of the job for her is helping young women emerge into adulthood and live their dreams.

"We have clients coming in from all over the country," she said. "You would be surprised that some of the states that we get that come here...It is their first dress and it's going to be a dress that they're going to remember for years. I still have my prom dresses. It's a dress you don't just toss away. It's one of your important dresses other than your wedding gown...and the stories that I've heard from people coming back [are] like, ‘My daughter was shy. She never wore a dress before, and for that night, she felt amazing because of you.’ We've had kids that don't have any parents, and they've come here [after] trying to save money to purchase a prom dress. We try to help them the best that we can, and those kids always come back and tell me how grateful they were."

Laura's Boutique and Bridal is located at 1707 US-6 in Carmel. Appointments for prom dresses can be made here