Christening Reception?

My husband wants to have an "open" guestlist for our daughter's christening, but would like to do it on a budget. Does anyone have any idea on where to host a christening reception on December? All I can think of are restaurants, but because of the large number of people he'd like to invite, that's out of the question (imagine paying at least $25-50 for 100 or so people!) My husband is considering moving her christening during the summer so we can just throw an informal reception at the park. (An idea which I'm not too fond of) Can anyone give me some suggestions please! Thanks.