Marriage and The City

Well, here we are, 2 1/2 months before the wedding. I'm finally done with my job on Wall Street and was planning on figuring out all the details during this time. These details include finding a photographer, a florist, buying our booze, getting my dress altered and a handful of other things (like finding a hair stylist/makeup artist for the big day). Now, I was anticipating a very different reality than The City, my first love, seems to abide by.

Not only am I being told that 2 1/2 months is just not enough time to book any of the above professionals, but the cost of such professionals ranges from absurd to astronomical. It's not that we have an iddy biddy wedding budget here and I still can't afford, um.... anyone. So I'm wondering what people who really have small budgets do if I'm having this much trouble.
In the most expensive city in the country, it's expected that everything is going to cost more. I just was not prepared for how much more. And frankly, it's just not in my value system to spend $5000 on flowers, $2000 on hair and makeup and another $5000 for someone to photograph it all (these are the low-average prices for such services, not mythical numbers I just created).

I'm really hating the whole wedding industry for creating all this fantasy hoopla bullshit that then enables hairdressers, florists and the like to engage in bride extortion. It's similar price fixing that the wedding dress designers engage in: "well darling, it's actually impossible to find a decent looking dress for under $1500, and if you want something special, that will cost you your hypothetical first child." Hells no I say. Yet I can see how brides like me must start off feeling appalled, and gently get bullied into spending thousands of dollars on ancillary services because "that's just what they cost." Do they really? And do they have to?

I am now taking suggestions for creative wedding solutions. Got an artistic friend who wants to do arrange our centerpieces? Or a buddy who make my hair look better than I can do myself? I refuse to surrender this quickly even if I must go down fighting.