My business had an unusual and surprising start.   In 2006, my mother gave me a colorful assortment of polymer clay as a birthday gift.  I had enjoyed sculpting with clay as a child, however, hadn’t touched clay in 30 years.  Not wanting to hurt my mother’s feelings, I thought I had better try and sculpt something with her gift.  At the time, my brother owned a Basset Hound and I decided he would be the inspiration for my first “piece”.  After a lot of struggling and frustration,  I finished the sculpture and was less then pleased with how it turned out.   My daughter Jenny, who was 11 years old at the time, thought it was adorable and convinced me to mail it to my brother.  He owned a book store in New Mexico and took the sculpture to work and displayed it behind the counter.    A few days later, he called me to say a customer asked to purchase my Basset Hound sculpture.  I was completely shocked.  I started sculpting Basset Hounds and other dog breeds in all sorts of whimsical ways and began selling them online. Little did I know, it will became a great dogs in weddings ideas for many brides and wedding planners around the world!

A year later, I was approached about sculpting my first dog wedding cake topper, a Bull Mastiff bride and groom. I began getting more and more dog wedding cake topper orders and made the decision to throw myself into it full-time and launched my website.  Custom Wedding Cake Toppers by Laurie Valko was established in 2009.  I own a huge debt of gratitude to my mother and daughter, without their support and encouragement I would never have started my dog wedding cake topper business.

Anything! Dogs in weddings ideas as cake toppers come in many ways, but mot of my orders are for Basset Hounds, Boxers, Labrador Retrievers and Border Collies.  I sculpt dogs with physical impairments as well.  Some require special wheelchairs to be mobile, others may have lost an eye or part of their jaw to cancer.