When I got my laptop a few years ago, I did a complete manual transfer of everything: personal files, bookmarks, contacts, calendars, applications, the whole shibang (I didn't mention system settings because, well... that's five minutes at most in the system preferences pane). With the exception of applications, everything was just a drag and drop. Because I save the installer files/.dmg and create digital copies of the installer DVDs I own, installing the files all over again wasn't difficult. The biggest hurdle I faced involved transferring templates for iWork from the last to the new system.
I tried migration assistant, but using my method, I shaved about an hour off the time MA would've taken, even when using an ethernet connection... that might just be me, though. If you don't happen to still have the installer files for your applications or didn't buy them through the mac app store (which saves some headaches for reinstalling applications), then you could use MA to transfer just the applications and their libraries onto the new machine and do everything else manually.
Also, because transferring templates required easy access to the Library folder, something that's not easy to get to on Lion I hear, you might have to find another way to do that.
