I've been teaching myself to make fondant (the Wilton recipe), and I've gotten it down to about 20 minutes a batch. And, I'm practicing on a dummy cake for a 16" square cake (bottom tier of a 5 tier wedding cake.)
I soon came to realize that it is going to take 5 1/2 batches of fondant to cover just this one cake. And, I've also come to realize that the fondant is better if I leave it rest overnight.
After a week of research on how to pick up the fondant (I finally ended up using a piece of pvc pipe 4" wide and 32 inches long), I made my first practice run. It went great, except I realized that I needed more fondant to cover the cake -- (at that time, I was only using 5 batches). So I made an extra batch and started rolling.
My husband (and my helper) was in the shower, but I thought, "No problem! I can do it by myself." I started to roll the fondant onto the pipe and realized that I was having trouble getting it to let go of the vinyl it was on. (That's what I need my husband for -- to peel away the vinyl). But it was too late to go back, so I maneuvered it off the vinyl, but it went too slowly and before I knew it 1/2 of my 30" circle of fondant fell to the floor!
Boy, am I glad I started practing NOW for the wedding that's in May. I think I would have died of grief if this had been the real thing.
Well, gotta go buy more powerdered sugar... 
Oh man! Good thing you practiced first! I have to cover a 16" cake too for July - this makes me nervous - I think i have to practice!!! I was thinking I could roll it out on a large sheet of vinyl and then plop the whole thing on the cake & peel off the vinyl? That was my brilliant plan... 
Have you tried this method? So far I've only done it in my mind - LOL 
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