OK, lets get serious here for a moment. Wedding photos are a BIG DEAL because they last forever. On the other hand, if the best choice for halls is out of commission for a while, and by taking the wedding out of town most people are not able to attend anyway, can’t the “community” come to a consensus to be understanding if not everyone is invited to most weddings until the hall of choice is back in working order? Can’t the Shul Rabbonim discuss this with kehilah to be dan l’kaf zchus and be moichel each other if you didn’t make the cut, so that families don’t have to be metarech to shlep their simchas out to NY to be able to afford the “standard” wedding and then be matriach the olam to choose whether or not they are important enough to have to spend extra bucks on airfare and accommodations to attend and be part of the simcha? Better to be moichel the baalei simcha as a community and understand that they have to keep the simcha small and cut out many people they would normally invite if the Concord were in play.
Go through your lists and invite as many of the family that you actually have to and only the friends that are your absolute closest, that is those that would do whatever they could to make it to NY if you would take it there. And then invite only those guests to the wedding and a few extra to the shmorg, or do what we do in NY and invite extra to simchas choson v’kalah which is after dinner and the caterer moves away all the dinner tables, puts out a table of nosh and drinks and basically clears room for dancing.
If there is a will there is a way, and in tough times you make tough decisions. You do what you need to do, and overspending is not something you NEED to do. Taking the wedding out of town where the people you love and really want to share the experience with won’t be able to come is not something you NEED to do either.
My mom a”h always said “de klener de olam de greser de simcha”, the smaller the crowd the greater the simcha. When you have to cut, you just have to cut.