Having A Hard Time Finding A Venue!!!

I`m getting married in September, 2005 in Chicago or Chicagoland area. We are having the hardest time finding a nice place that will let us cater ourselves. We wanted to get married at Maxim`s, a historic club from the 20s. It costs $3500 to rent out. Which I don`t mind paying, the only thing is that you have to use their "preferred caterers". And since the caterers know that you have to use them, they are charging $55 per person and up. That`s not even including taxes and gratutity! I`m having 200 people. Do the math. That`s $11,000 at least in food!!!! That`s crazy! So can`t do it in any place the city owns because they use preferred caterers. The other options are rental halls and I can`t find any. I don`t want anything tacky. I come from a long family line of cooks and I refuse to pay $55 for dried out chicken and overcooked vegetables. We plan to have family cook all the food and hire professional servers to serve it. The food will be approximately $500, the cooking is free for a wedding gift. The servers are suprisingly afforable. For 200 people they told me that I would need 8-9 servers. They are between $22 and $30 per server per hour, with a 4 hour minium, depending on what company. Some charge for miliage. I figure that`s between $700 and $1300. And they set up and clean up, so that my family won`t have to. Not to mention that, I`ll be saving almost $10,000 in Catering!! But, I still need a place to have it!! If anyone has any ideas or places in Chicago or Chicagoland PLEEEEASE, let me know! Thanks!