I just got married in March. We had 3 months to plan the wedding and did it for $4500. We had about 300 people at the wedding, and we did a simple cake/punch reception afterward. We didn't spend much on the cake, we had a friend make it. It looked awesome (picture attached), but only ended up spending about $500 on that reception.
We had a private catered reception for family. About 90 people came to that one. That was where the bulk of our expense went. I think we spent $700 on that one.
My advice? Do as much yourself as you can and go simple. We got the cheapest tuxes we could find (~$90 each), but they looked really sharp. Also, avoid anything that is marketed as "wedding". Companies will jack up the price if they know it's for a wedding because people pay it. It's ridiculous.
All said and done, we had a beautiful wedding and got a LOT of compliments on it. People were very surprised that we only spent $4500 on it.
The other option for us was to show up at our pastor's house at midnight. But I think our parents would have killed us.
Seriously though, eloping might be an option. A friend of mine had her parents give them $1000 if they would elope instead of having a big expensive wedding. They used the money to build some savings.