Talking to a friend, he says you are probably better off getting a photographer in for a day or half day - it'll be a lot cheaper, and a lot quicker, as you wont spend time fiddling around. Photographers may want to charge extra for processing the photos, but I'm sure that someone here can help - We can certainly clean them up, convert them for web etc, as can Kay too I'm sure
Equipment wise, you'll need a good digital camera that will take photos in RAW, you'll need a background, two constant source lights (temp balanced) and a few other bits and bob (tripod etc) to get started. Budget wise, he said to do it half decent, you are looking at a few thousand.