I say lift first. Put your tires and rims and everything on hold. Get the lift done, and then you can get the tires, wheels etc. that you really want. Why spend money on 245-70's when you will probably get rid of them before they're worn because you'll most likely want bigger tires after it's lifted.
I was thinking the same way about my mods...I don't have the money to do what I really want, so I'll just do cheap things like lights, and new stock size tires for now. But I decided to forget about new tires for the time being...spent that money on the lift. I'll run the stock tires for a little longer and then in a month or two when I save a little more I'll do the tires too and have what I really wanted to begin with. Gotta build the foundation before you can put the house on it.
and I agree with Tom about the soft 8's...Everyone has them, do something original