Massachusetts-Boston

Venues that allow outside catering

Hi! As I am sure a lot of you can understand, I feel overwhelmed with the cost of food when wedding planning. Spending $10k on food alone (with tax and gratuity) is just not doable. My budget is about $25 per person, maybe up to $30.  All of the venues that require you use their catering are well above that. I have found a few that are close, but when you add in the gratuity, fees and taxes, it goes up by another $2k. I can only spend about $3500 in food, and so am thinking of just doing a heavy appetizer hor d'oeuvre type reception.  

I am thus searching for a venue that will let me choose the catering, or even bring my own food potluck style.  I have fond a couple of churches, but believe it or not their ceremony and reception fees were at $2700.  I also am not really religious so would prefer not to do a church. I am open to an Elks Lodge type of thing but haven't found any that are my style or nice enough. I am not looking for fancy, but it can't look like a hall where people play bingo.  I live near Cambridge in MA, but don't mind traveling up to 1.5 hours outside of Cambridge.  I'd prefer a location NOT in downtown Boston, but if the price was right that is fine. I don't want an outdoor wedding, so am looking for indoor esp since we are looking at March 2016 (to get off season prices).  

I am also looking for cheap but good catering suggestions for if I do find the venue that lets me do it myself.  My fiance is Vietnamese, so Asian inspired catering would be nice.  We found one place that fits our budget and we are also looking at Whole Foods catering. 

We think we will have about 110-120 guests. 

I can't believe how hard it is to find a place that lets you do outside catering! 

Any thoughts on venue?

Thanks!

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