We are a national wood countertop manufacturer and we actually see this Very often! And not just from a budget reason but from a purely design and function reason.

The most important thing to remember is that wood has some slight natural movement. So if you initially install your granite and your wood at the same height and at the same amount of overhang, you could see that height or overhang that was once flush begin to vary by as much as a 1/16th of an inch depending on the season. We encourage customers to consider this and perhaps make your wood top 1 inch higher or lower than your granite so you will never notice the variation because the height is different on purpose!

Here are some photo examples submitted to us by our customers that may help inspire you!

Several of our Houzz project photo albums have more photos than I can add here!
http://www.houzz.com/projects/372761/black-walnut-wood-countertops (click the 1st photo to link to that album)