Think of all the weddings you've been to and ask yourself what was the best part of each. Do you really remember wedding favours and colour schemes?
The best ones I've ever been to (including my own) have been ones where there is a sense of community involvement in the wedding, rather than a photo opportunity. We had two photographers, my SIL, a press photographer, and an ex-bf of mine who takes wonderful portraits. The mix of images was fabulous. If you don't want to go down the ipod route, ask around friends with teenage children, one of them is bound to want to be a DJ for the night. Just make sure you pre approve the playlist. If you know people with newish cars, what's to stop you putting ribbons on them and getting them to drive you to the church/registry office?
One of the best memories I have of my eldest sister's wedding was sitting round the kitchen table the night before making up bouquets and buttonholes. She made her own cake, but I bought mine from M&S and decorated it with the flowers left over from the buttonholes, red and white carnations.
All the previous tips are fab. If you want to make your own invitations, it's very easy to do them on the computer using MS Publisher. I bought some posh paper on a 3 for 2 at WHSmith, put a picture of the two of us on the front, and a scan of the sluglet on the back. Failing that, what's to stop you emailing out invites?
And finally, here's what my little sister did. She had a very small registry office wedding, just 9 of us were there, followed by lunch at Cafe Rouge. Then she hired a 5 bedroom villa in Portugal and had a week long family party. People came and went for one day or the whole week, sleeping in the rooms or camping out on the floor of the dining room. We took side trips during the day and big family meals at night. There was a pool and it was near a beach and the whole thing cost less than your average UK wedding.