Literally could not have said it better! We made a similar decision, on the back of lockdown.

Saving on £25k to travel when we can, or buy us some freedom - the freedom of not having to rely on a paycheque and doing things a little differently - is worth much more than a few hours in a venue, no matter how fancy it might be!

(Plus ours tried to scam us and get us to pay for the ceremony when the national lockdown had canceled our wedding date to begin with...)

A positive of this pandemic has been to give us the space to re-think this tradition, and not feel obliged to follow in those footsteps just because it's "what people do"...