Jointing and planing is something I have an issue with being a primarily hand tool woodworker. I don't have a proper shop space so I can't be buying stationary equipment. I do visit some shops occasionally, and for my next project I intend to go to a shop with good machines and do all my jointing, planing and dimensioning. It's not very convenient (far away) or cheap (hourly billing), but it'll work.
For my previous project, I hand planed some of the work pieces all the way from rough lumber and it wasnt't that bad. But it did take a bit of time and my end result wasn't perfectly flat, square and parallel. But it worked out and the pieces were too small to go through a jointer and a planer anyway.
Buying pre-dimensioned lumber is also an option but a very expensive one. And wood doesn't like to stay flat when humidity and conditions change, so a minor touch up might be required.
There isn't really a good way to accurately flatten a surface that larger other than a plane. Here's some notes on my bench: http://www.mcvoy.com/lm/bitmover/lm/wood/bench/
For table saws, the old craftsmen that look like this:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/tls/5874228064.html
are actually pretty nice. I had one of those and it was really good about not spraying dust at you.