Wedding reception foods do not have to be expensive. A gourmet salsa and chip station is a fun way to stretch your wedding reception food dollars.

If you are looking for some help with stretching your food dollars for your wedding reception, you might want to consider offering a gourmet salsa and chip station at your wedding reception. Not only is this idea very inexpensive, it is super easy.

Perhaps you are thinking, "Chips and salsa at my wedding... are you kidding?"

No, I am not kidding at all!

The truth is chips and salsa can be dressed up to appear quite appropriate for wedding reception fare. By designing an attractive multi-tiered station - you will have the makings of a crowd pleasing snack without using more than maybe $25.00 or so of your reception budget.

A gourmet salsa and chip station is as simple as:

1. Determining the look of the station. You will want the station to compliment the look you are trying to achieve. Keep that in mind as you consider the design of the station.

2. Collecting interesting tablecloths, beautiful rustic baskets and bowls, interesting props, and some lifts to raise food to varying levels. Your lifts can either be covered by fabric or if they are attractive and match the mood, they can be used as part of the overall design.

3. Playing with the different pieces. Have fun! You can set the pieces up on your dining room table or kitchen table months in advance as you work on coming up with a look you like. Then just snap a picture, take some notes, and store the details away in a file folder.

4. Packing a box with everything you need for recreating the station at the wedding reception venue. If you don't need to use the decorative items and dishes you have collected until the wedding, then go ahead and save yourself some time later and put everything for your gourmet salsa and chips station in a box that will be delivered to the reception site at the appropriate time. If it is several months in advance, hold off on buying your salsa and chips. You will want to buy those closer to the wedding month.

5. Buying the chips and salsa in bulk at a wholesale warehouse like Sams or Costco will help you save additional money.

6. Adding to the visual appeal of the salsa is so easy. Shredded cheddar cheese, chopped green onions, confetti chopped fresh veggies and iced baby shrimp are a few gourmet touches you can add to the top of the salsa. Send along a cooler to the wedding reception with ziplock bags of each garnish that you are offering. You can limit the garnish to an inexpensive sprinkle or if you prefer, you can offer your guests bowls of options for hands-on sprinkling. If you want your guests to sprinkle their own toppings, keep in my mind that you will need to buy considerably more quantity of each item.

This station is based on a very simple concept of designing, collecting, packaging, transporting and ultimately pouring, sprinkling and serving. How easy is that?

A wedding reception station does not get much easier or less expensive than this. When a food station such as this is so rich with personality and panache, no one will even realize that this station cost you somewhere around $25.00 or so, depending on the quantity of chips, salsa, and toppings you purchased.

2006 Kathi Dameron, Kathi Dameron and Associates

Note To Publishers: You are invited to share this article through your ezine, website or print publication provided you publish this article in its entirety and include the copyright statement, bio information, active website links and contact information for Kathi Dameron and Associates as provided in the resource section at the bottom of the article.