Need a suggestion on a place to hold our ceremony! Getting married at South Gate Manor!

So I have been searching and searching for a non-religious ceremony only place.  We are getting married at the South Gate Manor...We love it there but are not too thrilled about their outside grounds (very small, no center aisle etc...) Its beautiful but not ideal for us. We originally booked it as a 5PM ceremony than go straight into cocktail hour..thinking about it we really dont want to see each other before we get married however it is impossible to take your pictures after your married because than you will miss the whole wedding.

So we decided to look into places in New Jersey or Staten Island (thats where we are both from) to see if we can find a location that will hold our ceremony only at an earlier time so we have time than to take pictures.
Here is where we looked so far:
In Staten Island:
-Snug harbor (We loved it there the only thing is that they can not offer us an indoor space if it rains because our reception isnt there.  They said that we need to look into getting a tent set up) Were getting married in July so hopefully it wont rain but you never know...So we looked into an outside tent company and they quoted us at $700...Still have to give a 50% deposit to hold the equiment for the day. Snug Harbor is charging a $500 site fee and $2 per chair
-Alice Austin House...they want 800 dollars just for the site fee than we have to pay someone for chairs and tents...

In New Jersey
-Our hotel is the Raddison in Freehold so we looked into the Crystal ballroom to see if they can accommodate us but they have that date booked and are going to give first priority to people having their reception there.
-Battleground Country Club-they dont have our date available
-Monmouth parks are pretty expensive and they cant hold us a date until january because they want to see if anything else comes up, we cant wait till january.

Were not into the beack or anything like that either. 

So now we are back to square one.  So we thought about maybe having our ceremony at the South Gate Manor at around 2-3 o clock this way we can have time in between to take pictures.  Its just that what are the guests going to do for that period of time?...Most people will be staying in the hotel so they can go back to the hotel and than take the shuttle over later...but what about the people who arent staying in the hotel! Ahh this is so frustrating. We were thinking about asking the SGM to have like a hospitality room where people can wait maybe have champagne/cheese crackers etccc....
I need some suggestions and help as to what is our best option...Do we go with Snug harbor and chance no rain? However we need to have a tent company in mind and a deposit just in case...Do we try to bump up the time at the SGM this way less people will be there and we dont have to see each other before we get married? 

Any suggestions/help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks for letting me Vent...Sorry so long!!
Stacy

So I have been searching and searching for a non-religious ceremony only place.  We are getting married at the South Gate Manor...We love it there but are not too thrilled about their outside grounds (very small, no center aisle etc...) Its beautiful but not ideal for us. We originally booked it as a 5PM ceremony than go straight into cocktail hour..thinking about it we really dont want to see each other before we get married however it is impossible to take your pictures after your married because than you will miss the whole wedding.

So we decided to look into places in New Jersey or Staten Island (thats where we are both from) to see if we can find a location that will hold our ceremony only at an earlier time so we have time than to take pictures.
Here is where we looked so far:
In Staten Island:
-Snug harbor (We loved it there the only thing is that they can not offer us an indoor space if it rains because our reception isnt there.  They said that we need to look into getting a tent set up) Were getting married in July so hopefully it wont rain but you never know...So we looked into an outside tent company and they quoted us at $700...Still have to give a 50% deposit to hold the equiment for the day. Snug Harbor is charging a $500 site fee and $2 per chair
-Alice Austin House...they want 800 dollars just for the site fee than we have to pay someone for chairs and tents...

In New Jersey
-Our hotel is the Raddison in Freehold so we looked into the Crystal ballroom to see if they can accommodate us but they have that date booked and are going to give first priority to people having their reception there.
-Battleground Country Club-they dont have our date available
-Monmouth parks are pretty expensive and they cant hold us a date until january because they want to see if anything else comes up, we cant wait till january.

Were not into the beack or anything like that either. 

So now we are back to square one.  So we thought about maybe having our ceremony at the South Gate Manor at around 2-3 o clock this way we can have time in between to take pictures.  Its just that what are the guests going to do for that period of time?...Most people will be staying in the hotel so they can go back to the hotel and than take the shuttle over later...but what about the people who arent staying in the hotel! Ahh this is so frustrating. We were thinking about asking the SGM to have like a hospitality room where people can wait maybe have champagne/cheese crackers etccc....
I need some suggestions and help as to what is our best option...Do we go with Snug harbor and chance no rain? However we need to have a tent company in mind and a deposit just in case...Do we try to bump up the time at the SGM this way less people will be there and we dont have to see each other before we get married? 

Any suggestions/help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks for letting me Vent...Sorry so long!!
Stacy