Haven't made the soup yet, but plan to for a holiday lunch. My question is, the photo makes the soup look creamy; would it suffer from less cream...

Using the cream just as garnish will just the flavor of the soup but that might be fine. Keep in mind you will also be losing 2/3 cup liquid which you might need to make up somewhere else. If you'd like to avoid the cream, maybe you'd like to make a peach gazpacho. Here's one I like: http://www.marthastewart.com/330203/peach-gazpacho