Cake toppers break with cookie-cutter past

Michael E. Ross Reporter • Profile • E-mail

Thanks to some young, venturesome companies capitalizing on the permutations of modern love, many of those keepsake bridal figurines that grace wedding cakes everywhere this time of year look strikingly different. While love may be blind, these companies’ racially interchangeable wedding toppers show that the opportunistic entrepreneur sees very well.

With their tweak of nuptial tradition, the companies are responding to changes in the complexion of romantic relationships.

Interracial marriages in the United States have been on the rise, from about 310,000 in 1970, to more than 651,000 in 1980, to 1.16 million in 1992, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

A growing trend
Today, there are more than 1.5 million interracial couples in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. While they are only a fraction of the 55 million married couples, their rate of growth has been remarkable — doubling every decade.

Renellie International

And although most gay couples are barred from marriage per se, they are increasingly holding ceremonies with all the trappings of traditional weddings.

‘Something that will reflect you’
All of this is not lost on Rena V. Puebla, a veteran wedding planner and co-founder of Renellie International, based in Costa Mesa, Calif. In 2000, Puebla, who is African American, was engaged to an Asian American man; both wanted a traditional affair, right down to the wedding-cake topper.

“It was very challenging,” she said. “You want something that will reflect you. When we were looking, there wasn't anything out there. We ended up with flowers at the top of our cake — we got figurines, but they were doves, at the base of the cake. What do you do?”

For Puebla, the issue became just this side of an obsession. “I was thinking about it on my honeymoon, in the south of France — ‘something's gotta be done,’ ” she said.

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