Ugly Gym reception

Fabric?

I see huge potential. (may need a bit more than average decorating of course)

Have you considered uplighting? It could brighten up and give a splash of color to the wood paneling, and take attention away from the ceiling.

Try lights and borders. Maybe, buy some wall hanging and candles. Also, fabric and confetti would make it more colorful.

Fabric, uplighting, Gobo's, plants with twinkle lights? Watch every episode of David Tutera's My Fair Wedding and you will get some ideas. Or... just call David Tutera!

Oh hun, that's not so bad! Like the other ladies suggested, do a little fabric draping on the borders and across the ceiling and throw in some uplighting and it will be breath taking! Do you have a coordinator? If so, they would be able to direct you towards possible vendors. If not, a quick online search could help you get in touch with some. You could even DIY it if you are on a budget, just use PVC piping and fabric for the draping and you can rent uplights online for like $19 bucks a pop. Don't worry hun, it can be transformed into something perfectly enchanting, you just have to get creative with it

Something like this would be a nice and inexpensive fix...depending on your location.

Im actually having the perimeter draping in a thicker fabric for my venue

I imagine you chose a gym because it was low cost? A lot of these options are going to be costly to cover that large of a space. Uplighting will draw the focus away from the walls, but I think that could be costly too.

I would just work at making the tables elegant and dim the lighting to work well with candles. That will also draw focus to the tables and away from the walls.

Love Is Real has a great inspiration picture. Use some tulle instead of full fabric(bc I imagine its cheaper), or some gossamer and I bet it would be beautiful!!!

I would try and get black material and dress it up with some fairy lights (which are dirt cheap).

I would also try dress up the floor more to keep the attention there... some nice paper lanterns, balloons, glitter...

I could actually imagine paper lanterns/ balloons hanging off those wood panels in your second picture... if you can get some extra material to wrap around those and hang lanterns it would actually be very nice.

I would try and get black material and dress it up with some fairy lights (which are dirt cheap).

I would also try dress up the floor more to keep the attention there... some nice paper lanterns, balloons, glitter...

I could actually imagine paper lanterns/ balloons hanging off those wood panels in your second picture... if you can get some extra material to wrap around those and hang lanterns it would actually be very nice.

OMG! I loooove Love Is Real's photo! Do THAT! :-D

As long as your tables look nice the focus will shift away from the walls and ceilings. Draw people's eyes where you want them to be, and not where you don't.

I agree, I would drape the heck out of the place and add some nice lighting....girl that's plenty of potential!

I see so much potential here! You can do so much, it will just take some DIY, creativity and help from others. You got this- I can see this being a gorgeous wedding!!!

Depends on your budget.

You can hang tulle, or paper lanterns. If you have a bigger budget, you can have lights hung. You could even hang weighted balloons.

Also really depends on your intended theme.