While I may be able to talk my fiancé into increasing our budget to around 7k, the truth is we both want to buy a house (outside of the city) in a couple of years, and he has a daughter with a pricey pre-K. We're not going into this with a ton of family assistance and I'm not comfortable funneling alllll of my savings into it. So! Here is where I am at: we're looking at either November or December 2015 or March-May 2016. 50-60 people. I am absolutely adamant against an outdoor wedding in NY because I am faaaar too anxious to spend the better part of a year freaking out over the weather (and I would). But I need help finding an indoor venue/catering options that don't soar past 5k.
50% of our guest list is coming from out of town so I want to be able to feed people (buffet/stations is fine with me) and not just do passed h'ors d'oeuvres, but I am having no luck finding anything.
Getting married at city hall and then just having a dinner party later is becoming an option, and fast, despite my reluctance, unless we can track something down. My dreeeeeeam would have been the Metropolitan Building but at 6k for just the venue, that's not an option.
We're looking in the outer boroughs and Hudson Valley (he lives in Westchester). Not interested in Long Island, fwiw. Would anyone have any suggestions at all? I've started to really dislike trying to plan my wedding.