Carry Scenario: Wedding
I had an idea for a series of articles on various scenarios that I have encountered a couple of times and how I handled those tasks with my EDC. Here is the carry scenario intro article. The first scenario up is a wedding. My wife is a college professor that runs a research lab and as a result we go to about one wedding a year. Sometimes it is more and sometimes it is less. The other issue is I REALLY dislike weddings. They strike me as deeply self-indulgent and corny. A 50 year anniversary deserves a party. The start of something, especially when they end in divorce 50% of the time, seems like an event unworthy of celebration. Some of them are really touching. The vast, vast majority are not. So take this advice with that grain of salt.
Fear Factor: above average
Are people going to flip out if you pull out your gear, especially our knife? At a wedding, the answer is almost certainly YES. There a lot of people from different parts of the world and even if it is YOUR wedding probably half the people there aren’t related to you. If you are a guest, there are a ton of people that don’t know you. Watching a stranger pull out a knife is a pretty scary thing for some part of the population.
Chaos Level: above average
One of the things about a wedding is that there is often this long procession of sites—the church, the reception, the hotel, breakfast the next morning. With all this chaos, I want to keep my carry small so that I can have in my pocket and know where it is at all times. So pretty much all Cold Steel stuff is off the menu
Clothing Impact: above average
I am almost always in slacks, at the very least, so the fabric is thin and not terribly durable, so size and weight are an issue. For example, I think the Small Sebenza is probably has hefty as I want to go. This is also a place where I am okay with a clipless knife, especially if it has a slip to keep it in the pocket. Clipless knives and slick pants often equal lost knives.
External Restrictions: below average (unless your going to the especially obnoxious “destination wedding”)
This is the only thing easy about a wedding, with the one caveat. Because they are typically in rented facilities or homes, as a guest you have a lot of latitude. If are the bride or the groom or in the wedding party, people are already giving you a wide berth, you can carry pretty much anything you want. The pressure on your carry choices had to have one soft spot and this is it.
Note: Weddings are typically fancy events where folks dress up. So in a way, this advice applies to church too. One thing that changes this scenario from the church scenario is that often weddings involve staying over the night of the wedding. Because of that, I think I might do a different Carry Scenario for church. But in a pinch I think all of this advice would apply to church, too.
Recommendations
In most situations where Fear Factor is a big problem, I like the Victorinox Alox Bantam. It is one of the rarer SAKs, I have never seen it carried in a store in person, so you will probably have to order it. But it is perfect. The blade is large enough to do real work, like cutting an apple, but the blade shape and the overall appearance is very people friendly. The fact that it is two hand open means your not going to make some sinister noise clacking the blade into the cutting position. Its lack of a lock is another good thing, making it seem more tool like than weapon-y. Finally there is the alox scales which not only play nice with other stuff in your pocket, but give it a modern, clean, almost Apple-like aesthetic. And what are more people friendly than Apple products? Its worth noting that the 88/91 combo tool gives the Bantam real utility over a standalone knife in a wedding scenario. If you have gone to a wedding in the past 20 years and there wasn’t some kind of micro brew offered at the bar, you did something wrong.
For many of the same reasons I like a slipjoint too. Something like the Indian River Jack is obviously great as are some of the traditional designs with bottle openers. I like barlows and sodbuster patterns too, as they are less weapon-y than something like a Texas toothpick. The fact that the IRJ comes in a pocket slip is great—no clip, no clothes imprinting, but still secure carry. More than once the IRJ started a fun conversation where someone would ask me one of two questions: 1) how old is that; or 2) is that the knife my grandfather carried? Both questions had answers that surprised the other person.
Another knife that I like in a wedding scenario is the Spyderco Roadie. It is just incredibly people friendly and I really like the knife in hand. The two hand opening slipjoint is perfect in this scenario and having one with modern materials isn’t a bad thing at all. Plus, the bulbous tip make this threatening only to the most irrational person.
One last knife I really like at a wedding is the CRK Mnandi. This knife, especially with the amazing pocket slip, just screams: formality. It is very capable, but it still looks sophisticated and almost jewelry like. Popping out a Mnandi makes you look like freakin’ James Bond, its just so classy. And while it is pointing and has a lock, its slim, minimal appearance and the beauty of a wood inlay somehow make it less weapon-y. In this same vane I like the full titanium TRM Nerd. That knife is exceptionally thin and also quite classy.
The slick pants could be a disaster for many lights. Their slick metal tubes and the fact that the clip doesn’t hold well in the pants. If you have a sports coat or the like, you can carry the light in an inside pocket. You can also clip a light in one’s shirt pocket. For that reason I like something like the Reylight Mini Pineapple. I also like the Prometheus Lights Titanium Beta. Both are small enough to live in a pen pocket or an inside jacket pocket. I also like the built in lights with odd shapes like the Nitecore TIP. This is one place where the protruding rubber buttons are an advantage.
Another option is a “kit.” This is a pairing of a keychain tool and a small light physically connected by a Niteze S-biner or a split ring, inspired by the “kit” pairing seen on Spydercollector’s website. I have quite a few of these kits for a wide variety of scenarios, but they will all work here, because they are so small. I probably wouldn’t use my micro fixed blade kit, but the “TSA approved kit” which is the Leatherman Style PS and the Lumintop Frog, the Jester “kit,” my original kit which is the Leatherman PS4 (which is OOP, so try the less well made Gerber Dime) and the Rovy Von Aurora will work well here. There is also one “do it all device” that can work here—the Victorinox Midnight Manager.
One other consideration—this is a perfect place for an aftermarket pocket slip. I have often carried the above set up to a wedding.
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