GRANDVILLE, Mich. - For the budget-minded bride and groom, here's an idea: rent a fake wedding cake.

The idea is to have an elegant, multitiered pretend cake for show while serving guests slices from a real but inexpensive sheet cake.

The inside of a faux wedding cake crafted by Fun Cakes contains mostly plastic foam, with a secret spot reserved for a slice of real cake to be shared by the bride and groom.

Everything is covered by gum paste and fondant, a frosting-like confection made from sugar and water often used in cakes and pastries.

“The only difference is the inside. Nobody can tell,” said Kimberly Aya, whose three-month-old company also bakes real cakes.

Fake cakes aren't new but renting them is fairly novel.

Mary Brown, manager of Cakes Plus in Grand Rapids, said her bakery has rented out its window displays a few times when brides were desperate and needed something at the last minute.

Brown said a typical three-tier cake serving around 100 guests costs an average of $200 to $250. Aya charges $100 to rent an in-stock fake cake and $150 for a custom design.

Bride-to-be Nicole Kreuger, 26, of Grand Rapids, said she will spend about half as much on a fake wedding cake paired up with a sheet cake as she would have spent on a real cake elsewhere.

“That's saving us a ton of money,” she said.