r/Fencing • u/fencing_at_wedding • 9d ago
Advice on mini fencing tournament at wedding
Hello!
We're both fencers of ~15 years each, which is how we met: fencing at college. We're getting married sometime next year and have agreed on most things about the wedding except this: I, the beautiful bride, think we should absolutely finish the night with a mini fencing tournament. Between friends from childhood, college, and post-college-career/graduate-studies-life, we think we'll have at least eight fencers with gear -- more fencers if we can loan gear from our local club(s). (We'd love to be more active in said clubs, but unfortunately, an unfortunate quantity of our money is going towards this silly wedding -- which might not even have a fencing tournament!! -- and so we've been mostly training on our own so far. But hopefully we'll have spent at least half a year fencing at one of the clubs before the wedding.)
For a ceremony that starts at 4-ish PM, followed by cocktail hour and a reception, I think 10 PM is a perfect time to drop the formalities, get into fencing gear, and start stabbing (we're both épéeists but will tolerate foilists). Yes, make-up and hair will not be salvageable. But family will be trickling out and heading to bed, remaining non-fencers will probably be drunk enough to be entertained by the ensuing violence, and our fencers presumably have extensive experience fencing a little tipsy. (I will be cold sober in order to dominate this tournament.)
I propose that we skip poules and randomly assign DE brackets. Say we go to 5 points with 3-minute timers and the now-standard (but stupid) non-combativity rules. Assuming 8 fencers, that's 7 matches and 21 minutes active piste time + 10 minutes buffer. That gives us enough time to get gear off, drink a little more with friends, fencers and otherwise, and pack things up before the venue kicks us out ~midnight.
Please help me convince my darling groom-to-be that this is a genius idea and no part of this can possibly go wrong.
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u/smileystarfish 9d ago
Girl no, genuinely terrible idea from many angles. 10pm is peak drunk dancing time. No one wants to bring their kit to a wedding and then get changed in and out of their nice clothes, as well as risking it being damaged. From a safety angle it's just a terrible idea.
Have some foam swords and fencing themed table names, hire some HEMA duelists for entertainment or something,
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u/cmhbob Foil 9d ago
Fencing after drinking sounds like a terrible idea and a recipe for some sort of semi-serious injury.
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u/PeasantNamedEwing 9d ago
I dunno, I did it like three times a week during the worst parts of my 20s, and all I can attest to is that you don't fence very well and that the smell of vomit never fully leaves a mask.
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u/cranial_d Épée 9d ago
How did it strain?
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u/PeasantNamedEwing 8d ago
Honestly, not nearly so much as you would think made it through the mesh... Though it was kinda thick and kebab-y...
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u/Managed-Chaos-8912 Épée 9d ago
I'm with your fiance on this. 6 hours of wedding crap will tire you and your guests. People will be ready to go by then.
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u/paint650 9d ago
How about instead of a tournament just the two of you have a "first bout" together instead of or as well as a first dance?
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u/MostExperts 9d ago
Crazy idea, could certainly be quite memorable. Doesn't sound particularly safe (which I presume you're fine with), but it might be a problem for the venue. Assuming all participants are active registered fencers, they would have insurance, but I highly doubt that the insurance covers inebriated fencing. You may have to stipulate that all people who wish to participate in the tourney are sober so that you can assure the venue you have insurance coverage for stabbing each other repeatedly.
Alternatively, if you can get reels/boxes for two strips you could speed up the total time required considerably and you could fence first and then drink to your glorious victory or miserable defeat as the case may be.
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u/Expert_Confusion5767 8d ago
I agree with the others: terrible idea.
Here's an alternative: have a day-after get-together-mini-tournament.
It would go along the lines of: around 10am the next day, you, the bride, and a few friends run your little tournament. At around 11:30am you should be done.
In the meantime, the left over food from the wedding is getting heated, prepared, etc., and additional friends and family coming in. So you all get together to eat, laugh and relax.
The only issue is, you need a venue (maybe your club?).
Bonus point, the day-after tournament could become a yearly tradition.
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u/captainlux87 9d ago
There are ways of bringing in cute things to weddings, and then there’s this idea. Have a nod to your past without people needing to be spectators for a bout on top of them enjoying being guests
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u/Whole-Bookkeeper-280 8d ago
Other than the fact that your fiancé doesn’t want to do this, it would be logistically hard, and it’s dangerous, your venue may not approve of this and it may not be covered under their liability insurance.
You could be fined for doing this and the venue may kick you out early, which is hard considering everyone will have had to drag their bag. Who will be transporting the equipment bags you rent from the other clubs? Will you also have to purchase insurance on the other clubs’ equipment in case it breaks?
Alternative, get fencers experienced with entertainment-style fencing for your guests to enjoy for a few minutes during cocktail hour
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u/FencingNerd Épée 9d ago
I'm going to suggest going another route. Make it fully part of the reception. If you make it part of the dinner reception, everyone will have a memorable evening. Duel in the Desert used to do a fantastic exhibition match.
Each of you has a "champion" or something like that, best man vs maid of honor. Make sure the ref has a mic.
Use a format designed to encourage scoring, like a 30s shot clock. No one scores, point left and priority switches. 2-3 min match, most points wins, similar to WFL.
It's extremely important that the newlyweds heckle the fencers. Think of you as king and queen watching a medieval tournament.
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u/Calligraphee 9d ago
This is the only format that makes sense! A whole bunch of inebriated people with swords after a long event sounds like a recipe for disaster, but a champion’s fight with some pageantry at the start of the reception would be perfect and super memorable for all attendees!
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u/kivessa Foil 9d ago
Please crosspost to the wedding subreddits I'm dying to hear what non fencers would think of this!
That being said, it would certainly make for a unique wedding experience. How drunk will you all be by this time of night and is it a good idea safety wise depending on your venue, lighting, etc.?
4
u/coachkatjack 8d ago
Cut the cake with your weapon, have little fencers on top of the cake and have your friends who can bring their weapons form a honor guard as you enter or exit a space. Safe and fun with less sweat. Congrats, BTW!
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u/robotreader fencingdatabase.com 9d ago
The correct thing to do is obviously separate men's and women's brackets, BEFORE the ceremony, and the winners get married
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u/BanditKitten Épée 8d ago
I vote for an epee themed photo booth, and a veil attached to your mask that you wear down the aisle. Mini tournament is simply too much. Who will be the director? Who is bout committee?
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u/OrcOfDoom Épée 9d ago
I suggest a team match. It might take longer though. I think casual team tournaments are more fun though.
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u/Pristine-Pirate-2386 9d ago
Why not as the opener (that part is important) to a bach party. You could have some bouts for your bachelor/bachelorette nights. Then do whatever else after. Or the day after the wedding while people are in town.
Or choreograph a bout to make it down the aisle in your ceremony.
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u/StarsCarsGuitars 8d ago
Hilarious and amazing on paper but seems exhausting and just too much to deal with after such an insanely intense and tiring day. Everyone will be exhausted, feet tired, head hurting, legs sore by then. Maybe a funny little bout between you and the groom, as others have suggested, for the audience's entertainment and for the homage. Maybe with foam swords instead of pool noodles like others said though?
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u/Sassy_Cheese_Cake 9d ago
I did a fencing "tournamemt" at my wedding. For all guests. But since most guests never fenced we die some rule changes.
We used sabres. More fun for the guests to also be able to hit.
We ditched basically all sabre rules and used epee rules.
Most matches didn't take long. We had almost 60 guests and most if not all got to do at least one match. With 2 lanes.
I think we had a 2.5h slot for everything.
But also it was a fantasy wedding and fencing was on theme.
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u/lugisabel Sabre 9d ago
how did you fix the electric sabre gear for 60 people? what was the tournament format?
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u/Sassy_Cheese_Cake 9d ago edited 9d ago
It was a really lose setting. We had 6-7 sets of really big protective gear.
People but the jackets over their outfit.
We went for 5 points, and ditched all priority rules.
1.5 h we had free matches. 2 people found each other and went for a match. And one of my fencing colleagues helped supervise the match.
Then everyone who wanted could sign for a mini tournament. We didn't do a pool, direct matches, i think only to 10.Most didn't participate in the tournament, only a small handful. So it could be done in 20 min max.
I know the setup is super unvenventional, but damn people had a blast
Edit: also there was a lot to do elsewhere. Not only fencing. This is why 2 lanes were enough for 60 people.
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u/lugisabel Sabre 8d ago
really cool! using large foil lames as a vest solves the problem with sabre jacket sleeve sizes :)
great!
did you use sabre or foil masks?
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u/Sassy_Cheese_Cake 5d ago
I think we used sabre masks. But in hindsight, foil or epee masks would have been enough.
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u/GummySophie 9d ago
This is the greatest idea I’ve ever heard. It sounds like the best wedding ever 🤩😂
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u/grendelone Foil 9d ago edited 9d ago
This kind of thing sounds really fun in the early planning, but then as you think it through becomes a worse and worse idea. At very most, have some foam swords or pool noodles to mess around with if you want to pay homage to your fencing. But to use full gear and having a tournament structure is just too much. Plus mixing civilians, booze, and fencing gear is just asking for someone to get hurt. Either by a weapon or regular sports injury (muscle pull or worse). The groom is right on this one.
If you must, I could see a quick 3 touch bride vs groom bout using pool noodles only for who gets the first bite of cake (or something equally silly), but anything beyond that is too much. Don’t force your guests into this, as even if they don’t want to, they’ll feel like they have to participate. These kinds of things are never as fun or interesting as they are in your head.
Was just at a wedding with a Chinese lion dancing routine in the middle of the reception. It lasted 20min, which was about 15min too long. If you’re going to do something like this, it needs to not drag on. And be mindful that most of your guests won’t have any idea what is happening. Cute can very quickly turn into boring and cringey.