Well we did it. On June 8, we were married in front of a small group of friends and family and it was amazing. All the stress and the fears of things going wrong were replaced by pure joy. I didn't hear half of my processional song (Bless the Broken Road) but it didn't matter. All I had eyes (and ears) for was my future husband standing there waiting for me. lol It was beautiful out (we had an outdoor wedding) and we had a blast.
So here are my recommendations:
Venue: Grace Farm, Topeka. A small farmhouse which has been renovated to hold small events (I guess up to 50-100 people). You can find them on Facebook. Kathy and Neil are the owners and they are a joy to work with. We paid $150 for 3 hours to use the outside for the ceremony and 2 rooms inside for the cake and first dance. They decorated the place for me.
Photographer: Brian Wickett - prophotosbybrian.com. The man is amazing and for the budget bride he has a package for $500 for 3 hours of coverage. He does photojournalism and it is really nice. He also does formals. He is great to work with too.
Cake: Hy-vee. We had a small sheet cake (enough for about 20 people) and it cost us under $20. They worked with our colours too and were really nice and helpful. They do more extravagant cakes as well.
I did all of my planning from a distance as I live in Canada and all of these vendors were amazingly helpful given the circumstances.
Good luck to all of you still planning and if you have any questions about the vendors, please feel free to contact me. :-)