Cupcakes gone before cake cutting.

UMMM yes 100% yes!! This happened at our wedding and I was FURIOUS over it. Some people grabbed like 5 cupcakes at a time. Absolutely RUDE!! I don't have any insight except maybe if you have a day of coordinator have her not set out the cupcakes until right as you are about to cut the cake. Other than that I have no idea. That is one thing I wish I had thought about more.

A sign seems a little passive aggressive, but that could just be me, because I've never seen them before! I would have a family member bring them out later or cut the cake right away.

If you want to get photos, have the photographer get pics of it before people arrive. You'd think people wouldn't assume its okay to grab them, but I guess I could see why they would.

I understand the stress. Cupcakes can get expensive in large quantities and sometimes ordering a bunch of extra ones "just in case" is not an option. I suggest putting a little chalkboard sign up with something cute on it like "Available at 7pm (or whatever your cake cutting time is). Maybe even find a way to put a little ribbon fence around the table that you can ceremoniously cut after you cut the wedding cake. Or just put it in a corner that is very obviously not part of the regular buffet!

Thanks for sharing! Sorry this happened to your friend, this is helpful for us too as we're planning on doing cupcakes, but we don't want them to disappear before it's time!

The rhyming signs are cute but can get wordy and people may choose to not read them if it's too much. I plan to do cupcakes with a small cutting cake too and I'm going to be straight to the point. "Please wait until the couple cuts the cake before selecting your cupcake". It's still kind and I don't think anyone will feel any kind of way about it.

If you do decide to do the rhyming ones, make sure the sign is pretty big, front and center, and an easy to read font. Good luck!

Either don't set it up beforehand or maybe section off the area somehow with lattice room dividers or movie-theatre style ropes.

Best bet is not to leave them for later in the night. Signs can help but if it was guests not caring rather than knowing, it's not fool proof.

Possible order could be:

Grand entrance + first dance, dinner, cake cut, open dancing.

Grand entrance + cake cutting, dinner, first dance, open dancing.

This might be a bit much if you have special dances in addition to the first dance. However, those could be done in the middle of open dancing or if you start with your first dance, could open up open dancing.

I think it's nice too because you're pictures will be before anyone is (hopefully) too drunk and leave the rest of the night open to casual mingling.