Sam Hwang and Logan Corona created a larger-than-life dessert scene that wedding guests can use as an interactive photo backdrop.

After receiving an offer of $16,000 for a stage that looked like a wedding cake, the bride and groom took matters into their own hands and built it themselves.

As the founder of two wedding companies, The crazy florist And For the table, Sam Hwang27, knew she had to pull out all the stops for her marriage to 28-year-old Logan Corona. The couple had a phone booth, a vintage Thunderbird convertible and more at their Sept. 26 wedding at Penny Lane Ranch, but their custom rig took the cake (literally).

The California couple, who knew each other in high school but didn’t date until after college, have now gone viral. TikTok for DIYing their giant wedding cake scene, which took three weekends to complete but saved them thousands of dollars.

“By making it ourselves, we probably spent about $3,000 in total, including materials and shipping costs, so we saved more than half the amount,” Hwang tells PEOPLE.

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To create the scene on a budget, the newlyweds purchased a pre-made wooden stage from Event Decor Direct and plastered it. They also made piping on the sides of the stage and used silicone molds for icing.

The real “cherries on top” were made from cherry-shaped toilet brushes the couple purchased from online marketplace Temu, placed on top of foam balls. Hwang got the idea to use Temu brushes because she already had one in her bathroom and knew it cost a lot less than the cherry sculptures she saw online.

“When I was considering making more life-size cherries, it cost at least $200 each. That’s when the idea came,” she says. “I thought, ‘Well, we have a cherry plunger down there. Let’s use it.’ That’s Temu’s $5 versus $200.”

After Hwang and Corona made minor touch-ups to the venue, their vision of a grand reception came to life.

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“We wanted everything to seem very nice,” says Hwang, who got engaged to Corona in April 2023 after three years of dating. “The cake scene motif was just something we wanted to create together. We knew that with our background, I have always been more creative. My husband is very handy and can build a lot of things and we have Done in the past for various home projects, so building something like this made sense for our wedding.

The couple’s 85 guests loved the interactive backdrop.

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“Some of the older guests were just in disbelief,” Hwang told PEOPLE. “They didn’t know we could have stood on it. A lot of our closest friends knew we were building it, and so seeing it in real life, I think, shocked a lot of people, especially because that in the photos it looks smaller than it actually is in real life So yes, carrying all of this and being able to build it was really fun and a big surprise for our guests.

On Halloween, Hwang announced that the oversized cake stage is now available for rental in California starting at For the table for $1,500 per day.