Alternatives to courthouse for private ceremony?

Hi everyone! I'm new here and we have just started planning (not officially engaged yet but already planning... you know how it is). One thing that we have thought about is the idea to have a small, private ceremony and then a big reception at our house. We are considering doing it this way because neither of us likes the idea of people gawking at us during a ceremony and we want to avoid the drama that we know would come along with me not asking my sister to be a bridesmaid. I would rather not have the ceremony at our house, though. We have thought about going to the courthouse but I don't particularly like that idea either. Does anyone have a suggestion for a small, inexpensive venue that we could use for the ceremony instead of the courthouse? One of my original thoughts was to go to the adorable little church where his parents were married (neither of us is religious but I liked that the family history), but MIL says we have to be Catholic and I am not.