Mythical chocolate box village hall

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My DP is driving me to distraction concerning his unrealistic wedding budget expectations. It was agreed that I would go and research wedding venues in/near Exeter which I did and then provided him with a shortlist to pick from. However, he claims that all the venues are too expensive but then goes on about 50 people is not enough (as he doesn't seem to realise that the more people you need to feed the more the price goes up). He keeps going on about having a village hall venue (which will apparently cost 50p to hire and £2.50 to feed 100 people). So I have told him to speak to his friends and will find out where this mythical village hall venue is, but apparently it is my job to find the venue! I have explained to him that I presume if you find an idyllic chocolate box village hall (when we live in a city) that you would need to arrange everything seperately including caterers? Is this correct? I have explained to him that I would rather go for a package as I have a really stressful long hours job which involves me travelling all over the country so I simply don't have time to organise everything separately or to spend weeks before the wedding hand making everything and days dressing the venue (and there is no local family to assist)
Can anyone let me know if you anyone is aware of any pretty village halls near exeter where the do everything for you or have contacts that will!

Maybe more could come in the evening

Thanks everyone for your ideas. Tbh I would not have a reception in a pub as my dad was an alcoholic therefore I have many unhappy memories around alcohol and pubs in particular.

I think I need to sit down with my DP and emphasise that we need to agree on a venue than we are both happy with. I have already presented him with several options I think are suitable and he has refused to look at any of them.

If you can't stomach the idea of paying a wedding planner to do all the work beforehand, you could at least pay for one to run the day for you- we had to do this as we were booked for a register office ceremony at around 12.30 but couldn't get into our venue to start setting up until midday!

So we hired a wedding planner to be at the venue at midday with all our bits and pieces, she set up the room for us, took delivery of the cake, etc etc. Just having someone on hand to help run the show was essential, and cost a lot less than having the full wedding planner bells and whistles service.

Having reread your original two posts, and the latest one, OP, am I the only one who is questioning your fiancé's commitment to get married?
You and your family are paying, you say, BUT he is calling all the shots, has unrealistic expectations and refuses to look at any of the venues you have researched for the past six months?
He's 'aving a larf......

I don't know how far you have got with this OP, but we had similarish issues.

DH wanted a hotel with a package deal and I wanted a village hall (and we did find a lovely chocolate box village hall nr Winchester for £450). I kind of wangled that as I was going to end up doing most of the organising, and he couldn't find a suitable hotel with a wedding package for anywhere near our budget that we went ahead with the village hall.

It was a bit of a faff, but we got a caterer who provided food and catering services who set up and managed a lot of it. It included the manager of the catering firm being a kind of 'front of house'.

That said, my mother still grumbles that we should have got a wedding planner as setting it all up and clearing away did involve a fair amount of help from the wider family. I still feel the cost wouldn't have been particuarly justified, but it could have helped.

He should be making constructive suggestions not just dismissing your finds.
He should be putting his hand in his pocket and not expecting you and your family to sort it.
You should hire a wedding planner as part of the budget - i manage events as part of my job and could not face doing my wedding as well as a busy job - our planner proved her value loads of times with contacts and suggestions and made the whole communication thing easier and less fraught with DH ....
This is all about what DH wants. What do you want?

I am getting married in a village hall near Exeter soon! Longdown hall, but to be honest it is not very pretty, but it is large and has a bar. Yes if you book a village hall you will need to organise everything and this is really stressful. I am lucky that I have lots of family locally and wouldn't contemplate it without.
If you are thinking that pubs are a possibility I think that maybe they do weddings at fingle bridge on dartmoor (which is really pretty) also they can cater for large events at the turf locks on the exe estuary (again really pretty and they definitely do good food). I went to a work do there and they had a marque outside and it was really nice.

If you can't even agree amicably on a wedding venue I would seriously consider your long term commitment to each other - when DH & I got married (nearly 30 years ago ) - it was because we wanted to be married to each other - and considerations about the actual venue/guest list/caterers etc etc etc were absolutely secondary and of no real importance. I don't think I would want to get married to someone who placed so much importance on the actual detail of the day.

Lucky we are all different.