The best big weddings I've been to have all been on someone's land with a marquee or a barn or the like. Lots of string lights, a pig roast, a live band, free flowing drinks etc. and lots of people happy to see each other.
For the most part, the only meals that were truly memorable were ones in actual restaurants (I still think on a Chinese feast at a restaurant in Swiss Cottage over 25 years ago), but I've had good food in lots of different venues and it does make it a lot nicer than when the food is poor or badly served.
My cousin married his wife in a huge church with a fanfare of around 10 trumpets from above playing the bride in/couple out. It was absolutely incredible and way, way better than any other entrance/exit I've heard.
I only went to one wedding with young children. The couple provided a small box of goodies - colouring book, puzzle, a soft toy and a joke book I think - and it was a godsend and my kids still have the soft toys 6ish years later.
A friend had about 30(?) of us at a registry office in Liverpool that was a really lovely building and room and then a gathering at a garden they hired somewhere with Pimms and picnic like canapés. It only lasted a few hours but it was really civilized and, being small, intimate and very memorable. I did a lot more talking to people I didn't know before hand than I do at most weddings.
What hasn't been memorable:
I've been to lots of morning suits in Church then wedding breakfast and evening reception at a wedding venue type weddings and I've really enjoyed them but only because they've been an opportunity to see old friends/family. They're basically a reunion and could have been done in any number of ways without the excuse of a wedding and been just as good. They weren't memorable for the wedding, just because we got to dance and drink and spend time with friends. That's not nothing. Weddings are, IMO, primarily about strengthening social ties and these wedding venue places work well for that. And, obviously, I'm still really pleased my friends/family are getting married. But they seem quite manufactured, I spend almost no time with people I don't already know well and I am shocked when I hear the prices.
And, in case you are agonising over these things - I cannot remember a single wedding favour I have ever received. All the white wedding dresses look pretty much the same. I have no idea whether the bridesmaids were in identical dresses or complimentary dresses or anything else or how many there were or whether the colour matched the colour of the flowers or the ribbons on the chair. I can't remember what hymns we sang (but I remember a couple of weddings where the service seemed interminable).