Just off the top of my head, I haven't tried this:

Glue the veneer to some scrap MDF that goes on top of the piece. Cut it out (you may have to build a small vacuum table), inlay and then machine off the MDF.

There's a cunning method using V-carve which could be adapted to suit at the link below (it says 'video' in the link but is actualy a .pdf document)

Kit

http://www.vectric.org/video/aspire4..._Procedure.pdf