The Latest in Wedding Penny-Pinching: Fake Cake!

As we all know, the cost of even a modest wedding rises exponentially each year. Now a company in Grandville, Michigan has a partial solution to the problem: Don't buy an expensive wedding cake, rent a fake one for the day!

Here's how it works: the cost-conscious couple rents an elegant, multi-tiered, decorated cake with one small part real (for the ritual of feeding each other a bite of cake), and the rest of the interior made of foam. After the bride and groom take their traditional bite, the cake is wheeled out of sight and cut up -- only it's a much cheaper sheet cake that's cut up and served to the guests. And no one but the bride and groom will know the difference!

"The only difference is the inside. nobody can tell," said Kimberly Aya, whose 3-month-old company also bakes real cakes. The online version of her business is called CakeRental.com.

Experts estimate that a typical three-tier cake serving around 100 guests costs an average of $200 to $250. Aya says she charges $100 to rent a fake cake that's already in stock, and $150 for a custom cake. When weddings can cost more than some houses these days, I guess every little bit helps. Personally, my mother, my grandmother, and my sister-in-law each made a cake for our wedding pot-luck reception (in our home) -- a spice cake, a German chocolate cake, and a cheesecake, respectively. To us, the point of having cake was to have dessert! And they didn't cost us a dime!