So I was at this wedding party over the weeked for a friend of a friend and I was REALLY disappointed to see the cake that they had.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not trying to put some one elses work down, but this cake was NOT worth the money. The fondant strips on the bottom layer were craking along the top edge, the flowers on the second layer were cute, but the piping was really bad, the fondant tasted like wilton's and the shell border was crazy bad. Everything was airbruched and the cakes were all mixes. They couple now I make cakes, and when they asked what I thought of it...I lied. It was their wedding party and I didn't want them to feel ripped off just then. I looked around after, an NO ONE finished their pieces, too too sweet.

I respect large bakeries, but sometime it seems they cut corners....

But this sort of brought up a question. Do people airbrush cakes to save money and time, or is there another reason?

Well, airbrush DOES have its time and place and when done well creates a look that other decorating techniques cannot accomplish.

That being said, it sounds like this was poorly done airbrushing and also sounds like it was airbrushing used in lieu of coloring the fondant? If that's the case, then it was probably done to save time.