We had our wedding reception at the Astor Hotel in downtown Milwaukee. The Astor has a ballroom that's filled with old world charm and we loved it. We didn't do a sit down dinner, but instead did a cocktail recpetion where the food was served in stations and our guests could eat whenever they wanted. This made the reception more social and gave us more time to sociallize with our guests.
Many of our guests stayed one or two nights at the Astor. Their rooms are older, but not in too bad of shape. Plus they aren't that expensive...I think they were around $80/night.
The Astor will do sit down dinners and you also have the option of having your wedding there. Here's their website: http://www.theastorhotel.com.
And here's a few pics:
