I tried in vain making my bride and groom to stay up firmly. They just go limply and refuse to dry up . Please help, this is despite me adding extra gum trag!

What are you using to make your Bride and groom? Some fondant isn't designed to dry out, and isn't stiff enough for figures.

I like to use a combo of gumpaste and modeling chocolate for mine.

With gum trag, you need to add it to the fondant and it MUST rest for at least 24hrs. for it to work properly. For this reason, I prefer tylose because I can just knead it in & go.

What type of support are you using? Are they standing figures? You may need to do the legs & dress an allow them to dry completely before working on the torso, etc.

Rae

If you can work fast, then straight gum paste is what you want. It dries very quickly and is a lot lighter than fondant. If you need some time then mix gum paste with your fondant. I did that recently for a giraffe topper and was very pleased with how smooth it was and how much more time I could work with it...yet it dried in half the time of plain fondant.
I don't care for Tylose that's added to fondant. I find it too thick and it dries really heavy IMO. I used Wilton's premade gum paste and fondant.

Thank you friends for your quick reply, appreciate it.

carmijok - I'll give gum paste a go.

Rae- I use cocktail stick for my standing bride n groom. I did let it to dry out(which it didn't) before continuing with the grooms coat. The weight of it pulls it down and I end up with a short and stumpy bride n groom! I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

karateka - I suppose my fondant and gum trag mix is wrong! Even the fondant and tylose is not working too well! This is so frustrating!

Could you gals let me know how I can make a correct home-made gum paste!
jue

jues - If it is hot and humid where you live that can have an effect on how the fondant or gumpaste dries. I use fondant with tylose powder added for my figures and find that works for me. If making a standing figure you also need to have good support inside. If it's a large figure you might want to try using small dowels or skewers instead of the cocktail sticks. I agree with BlakesCakes you need to have the bottom portion of you figure good and dry before adding more weight to the top.

This is my favorite gumpaste recipe:

http://www.wilton.com/forums/attachments/NLTlyoseGumpaste_226092.pdf