Michael,
Framing and matting can be as easy or as hard as you wish to make it. You don't need a frame shop to do anything. You can buy acid free archival mat board, UV glass, and other conservation grade supplies at many places including both brick and mortar stores like "Dick Blick" as well as online stores. Don't get me wrong. Most frame shops do good work and it is easier for them to do fancy and intricate frame jobs, but most straight forward jobs can be done at home easily.
Here are a few example of ones I did at home. After them is a link to a thread I started about this very subject.
These three are 14x18 in size. Mats are full archival grade as is tape and backing board. I don't use UV glass as all the lights in my mancave are LED. I had them installed specifically due the fact that they emit virtually no UV radiation.
Costs for each:
Frame $25. Matboard and supplies $10.
Link to thread
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=168495
Hope this helps,
Mark