please post here if you had one. I was never married in the temple. I was married in a courthouse with my closest family and friends with me. But I did have my reception at my TBM aunt's church gym. At the time I really didn't care. I only had a reception because my parents wanted one. My husband and I went to vegas for our honeymoon and that's pretty much what I was focused on at the time. I "recepted" people in the hallway of her church. It wasn't actually in the gym until we sat down to eat. I've been married twice. The second time it happened on a beach in the caribbean with no mormon churches involved whatsoever.

I'm just taking count though. Did you decorate the gym? I honestly can't remember if we did or not. Tell me your wedding reception gym stories. Actually, it doesn't even have to be yours. Entertain me with your "cultural hall" wedding stories.

I've been subjected to more than I'd care to admit to.

I remember one when the wedding itself was in the gym. They put a butcher paper runner down the aisle for the bride to walk down. Imagine the sound of her dress rustling down the aisle on that paper. Glam.

My cousins wedding reception was in one too. Ghetto. No food, literally red punch, wedding mints in paper cups, mixed nuts in paper cups, and wedding (carrot) cake Oh, and fake flowers too.

I like carrot cake so I can't shun on that

A daughter of a family I know well had a gym wedding reception which I attended

It was good all in all, parents had good speeches that weren't preachy, okay food for a mormon event, and funny activities

I was invited to a reception in a Cultural Hall for someone I did not know at all when I visited a friend in the Canuck Morridor in southern Alberta a few years back....I passed. I think they had been married in Cardston Temple but the reception was in Raymond. Apparently the whole town, which is 75% LDS was invited...more gifts that way?? I took a pass while they put in an appearance. Thought that was weird but suppose that is normal in some Mormon circles.

I'm unfortunately from Raymond, and this is totally normal (for Raymond, not for real life, lol). Everyone is welcome to the gym reception...everyone knows each other, I guess.

I always thought the gym receptions were tacky, so after my weirdo temple wedding, the reception was in my parents house. And the whole town showed up anyway, ha.

We had three receptions. One was on the lawn outside the church, one was in my parents' back yard, and one was a barbecue in a park with our same-age friends.

One of the saddest things I have ever witnessed in my life was a gym reception for which the groom was Italian. His mother came over from Italy the festivities. From Italy. For a reception in a gymnasium. With the usual Mormon reception line. Isn't tht illegal in Italy? Aren't you required by law to have music and dancing and the whole nine yards? Plenty of good food and drink? the groom's mother probably wondered what happened to her son's sanity. I guess I could be wrong.

I was ostrasized at one church gym reception because I very obviously didn't fit in (wearing a nice, semi-formal dress, came alone). The guests were extremely rude to me; one family patriarch (who sat his clan at the table I was sitting at without asking) claimed that he had known the bride AND groom "their entire lives", even though the bride and groom had met barely 5 months prior to the wedding.

Most of the gym receptions are filled with sweets (cake, jordon almonds, ice cream punch) and not filled with a lot of the things you would expect at a wedding reception (laughter, dancing, general happiness).

I was dressed up for my reception, If anyone else was I don't remember but I feel for you. I did have a lot of sweets at my reception. If I could do it over again, believe me, I would. We had zero music or dancing. It was a 3 hour deal. Everyone went home after saying hi to me.

I think it was about 1972. It was the only kind of wedding celebration I'd ever been to at that point.

I was all of 18. The first gym reception was in the small Idaho town of the groom. I think everyone in town was there. The only thing you could call decorations were the flowers on the bridal party, and the cake table. There were so many gifts my inlaws had to rent a trailer to bring them to us. I had an apartment cram full of useless trinkets. In the meantime, we didn't have a chair to sit on. Can we say garage sale? If I would have suggested that people buy me certain things, that would have been considered incredibly rude.

The second one was in my home town. Same groom. Decorated almost exactly the same. I didn't feel bad about that. That's what everyone did that I knew. Reception lines are so incredibly boring. Why did anyone think this was a good idea? Pure torture. My parents would have looked at me like i'd lost my mind if I'd suggested any kind of food (besides cake), or dancing. It just wasn't done. Thank god times have changed.

It's strange to have a reception in a town where you don't know a single person. I suppose that's why they do the reception line. It's impossible to make a gym look good. It's better to not try. The harder you try, the sillier it looks. Your money would be better spent renting a good venue to begin with.

My daughter (exmo) is getting married. Not a gym in sight. Cake will be the desert, not the main course. The whole town is NOT invited. There will be good food, champagne, and dancing. We are going to celebrate, not just tolerate.

When I was 30, I went to a polish Catholic wedding. Now those people know how to throw a party. Live band, tables and tables full of food, dancing and drinking until morning. Amazing gifts for the bride and groom. No reception lines. The bride and groom move around the room and talk to their guests. The flowers, and decor are over the top. THAT'S a wedding party. Fun, fun, fun. I love Polish weddings.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2013 06:34PM by Mia.

I hate reception lines too. I hope your daughter's wedding is fun and mormon free :)

I did the reception line for my wedding, also for a couple of funerals. In the world of TSCC, there is no difference.

So true! Until you see the casket, you couldn't tell if you were at a funeral or a wedding.

Funerals may have better food.

you're right, I never saw potatoes at my wedding!

We did. We also had a brief "ring ceremony" before hand which felt awkward and cheap to me even in the moment. We did decorate, but I'm glad there isn't a photo of the entire (half) of the gym because I'm sure it would look incredibly cheesy and pathetic.

are you still married though? I was married to the gym church guy for about 9 years.

House mate convert had her reception in the gym. She was raised Catholic and of course her mother could not go to her wedding in the temple. THere was cake, don't remember other food. Do remember the raised baskeball nets (tacky).

Her parents I am sure would have contributed to a real reception but the new inlaws were calling all the shots. They did have a DJ and dancing as they were both big dancers. I remember her being rather manic, she did the sealing in the morning and would have done the throat slitting and such, I wonder if she was freaked out by that.

Years later, at a (nice) wedding her husband chastised her because she had a diet coke (the only diet soda they had), and she said that one drink was not going to kill her. Don't know if they are still married. They had two sons. Her husband was a RM but he finished college and they got married when they were about 26. This was in the DC metro area, so college is heavily promoted for getting a decent job.

Having been brought up non-Mormon, I was shocked at how mormons had receptions. Where I come from, a reception is a fancy sit-down dinner with music, dancing, etc. I had only been to a couple when our oldest son got married in Utah. I, as the father of the groom, avoided standing in line as much as I could. I thought it a form of torture to have the wedding party standing in a line for hours while people came by, stayed a few minutes, and left. To me, a reception is like a biblical wedding feast, or at least should be. The next family wedding was for a daughter who was marrying a non-LDS. The the wedding and the reception was at a mansion belonging to friends and it was a sit-down dinner. After that...the best receptions were for our second son as the first was at the Congressional Country Club with a second (same bridal party) at our local private beach. Others have been in ward gyms. Fortunatelty, we have had more food that usual mormon receptions. My idea is to have a sitdown dinner with elegant china and real crystal, etc., with good food and entertainment.

I still cringe at having to stand in a receiving line like at a funeral home. I just don't do it well.