Reception at a gym???

Draping and lighting. Good luck! You can make it work!

I agree with PP. Draping and lighting will be your friends. I would suggest uplighting (a lot of DJs here offer that in their packages) and string lights. You can use draping to hide the basketball goals if you want.

Here's another thread with some great suggestions: https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/gym-reception/0aed6a2add4baa28.html

Draping the whole room will negate any savings on your free venue-and ten times more. Your guests will focus on what is in front of them- the tables with centerpieces and candles.

If you want to add extra decor, I would focus on the ceiling, not the walls.

There are lots of ideas for decorating gyms on Pinterest, including using the basketball hoops to anchor lights and draping.

What you can do is wedding at the church and reception elsewhere. You have options but it may cost

Why is having the ceremony and reception in 2 different places not an option for you?

I'm doing this! Because, like you, it was free. Here's my tips:

1- Make sure you can serve alcohol! I refused to have a dry wedding, and thankfully they're totally fine with alcohol being served. If they're like my church, they may have restrictions. For example, we couldn't serve liquor. But, in my souther state, it's actually very rare for venues to allow liquor. Just beer, wine, and champagne!

2- See if there's a Kimberly Clark plant in your area. This sounds crazy, but the material they use to make tampons makes for fantastic drapery. They often give away excess rolls for this purpose.

3- lighting, lighting, lighting. Candles everywhere, string lights, low overhead lights (if at all).

4- Know there will probably be a tarp on the floor. It will not be pretty, but it will be okay. Heels are really bad for gym floors.

5- You can buy drapery in bulk on Amazon. Shop early and make sure there's a decent return policy.

6- Talk with the church about the music you can play, and the DJ set up.

7- Put pretty table cloths on the tables and have nice centerpieces.

8- Since it won't be the most spectacular reception hall, my friends are making a cute photo booth area. We're having extra lights and balloons and what not as a cute place to take pictures.

Is it going to be the most beautiful reception room in the world? No. But, if everybody has a good time, it looks nice, and you hosts your guests well nobody will care.

Check with the church of how much you can decorate the gym before you get too into planning. Can you serve alcohol? Why are you set on one place? Just curious as to why having ceremony and reception in two places is not an option.

View Quoted Comment We live in a very rural area, so we don’t have many options. Having them separately would make everyone drive at least an hour. Personally I just don’t want to do that. It is more convenient for myself and for the guests having it at the same place!

View Quoted Comment We live in a very rural area, so we don’t have many options. Having them separately would make everyone drive at least an hour. Personally I just don’t want to do that. It is more convenient for myself and for the guests having it at the same place!


I also didn’t add that I have another venue in mind! It’s not a church but it is a wedding venue. It’s definitely not free which is why it is my second option. I was just wondering if having a reception in gym looks weird lol. We’re also Apostolic/ Pentecostal so no alcohol will be served.

View Quoted Comment Thank you! This looks beautiful!!

First off, there is nothing wrong with having your wedding reception at a gym, feel free to have it wherever you want but keep in mind the expense to decorate may be massive cause you are literally overdoing everything to take away from the fact that it is a gym. You would be doing extra work to make things look visually appealing. But it can be done. I have seen some gorgeous photos of wedding receptions that were in fact located in a gym but be prepared to take out your wallet.

Uplighting would definitely be the way to go on a gym reception. You really don't need to do any draping with the right combinations of uplighting as shown in the photo below. You could probably drape behind the sweetheart or head table and drape the individual basketball goals and that would reduce your cost of attempting to drape out the entire gym.

Just thought about something. Balloons to hide the basketball goal would probably be better.

View Quoted Comment

Joey,

Did you rent these uplights? How far apart were they spaced?