First of all -- First time response -- Anyway growing up I witnessed a mix of different gatherings with different levels of stuffiness. When we hosted things at our house, there was a lot of laughter and music; I went to a few weddings where they had NO music, NO dancing, it was SO unbelievably boring--but our family weddings always had music and dancing. We were kind of "rebels" in our congregation. It's no wonder that only one of my 5 siblings remains in the "truth" today, and she and her (former elder) husband have not been going to the meetings in quite a few months. We just had this little spark of life that we could never squash completely to make the elders, etc. happy. I have found that the level of rigidity differs with each congregation. I've known a few fun-loving congregations and some unbelievably unbending groups as well.
As a matter of fact, I was "counseled" once for throwing a slumber party for some of the girls in the congregation -- I was 19 living on my own, and I invited some of the other teens and younger girls to come over and play dress up. We did hair and makeup and they modeled all my old prom dresses and work suits. It was totally harmless but I was told that this was inappropriate. Yet the boys in the congregation were allowed to run around the Hall with toy guns and pretend to shoot people.
As for me now, I'm SO glad that I never caved to the pressure and got baptized. I have one disfellowshipped sister and one disfellowshipped parent and that has caused enough problems over the years. We are all only now connecting and finding our closeness again.