We all do it. We pin mindlessly. We pin the outfits we want to buy. We pin the recipes we want to cook. We pin the projects we want to make. All in anticipation of, hopefully, one day getting around to doing some of what lives on our many different Pinterest boards.

One of my friends asked me to be her Maid-of-Honor, and as part of my MOH duties, I planned her engagement party. (I should pause and highlight that I do not host parties, do not do parties, do not like the attention associated with parties.) One thing was for sure, her party gave me the opportunity to create a living and breathing advertisement for this communal site of inspiration. The guests at the event would ask, “How did you ever come up with this?”  And my answers: “Pinterest” or “Pinterest Inspired.”

First, we have the oh-so-precious bride-and-groom clothespin for the Clothespin Game. You know this game. It is played at every baby or bridal shower. You receive a couple words that you cannot say, and if you slip, someone steals your clip. The person with the most clothespins at the end, wins. This is perhaps one of the games that I am willing to play at any of those functions, so naturally, when it came time to think about what to include, this made the list.

Preparation: Purchase regular ole clothespins, black and white paint, and permanent black and red fine-point markers. Also, you must recruit a cat to monitor your process.

Steps: Paint one side of the clothespins white, let dry, and repeat. After that side dries, flip, and do the same thing with the black. For both sides, you want to re-create the idea of the dress and the tux while envisioning the metal clip on the clothespin as the couples’ arms. This will help you to decide what should be painted white for the shirt of the tux. Also, you will want to establish a quick method of doing a line and triangle for the tie on the tux. The hair is simple enough. On both, you just paint (for simplicity, I used black) and curve as desired. Finally, hot glue a white ribbon as the veil. You may want to glue ribbon on the dress as well to mimic a train, but I opted to keep it simple. Do not forget to draw eyes and mouths on your little couples. And be gentle on yourself. We are not perfect, and these clothespins, just like people, will end up looking unique and beautiful despite any tiny flaw that happens.

Another game was the “Identify what couple” game. I know, I know — does not seem all that exciting. But again, I am not a big fan of shower games.  o create this game, you will want to find a number of images of different “couples” (any couple, famous ones, family ones, you name it). Glue those images on paper, whole punch, and hang from balloons. Why? Simply because the game fills the space and doubles as festive decorations. You will want to number the images and have some blank paper with the corresponding numbers on them for your guests to write down their answers. When the game is over, read out the couples, and the person with the most correct, wins.

Do not forget the party favors. But do not stress. You do not have to break the bank here — nor should you. This is for two reasons: 1) People will end up taking more than one, or 2) People will end up just throwing it away. Because of this, you want these favors to be cheap, but nice, and to correspond with the couple (perhaps how they met, where they are getting married) or with the theme of the shower. Come up with a cute saying, type it up, print out, and tie it around some sort of edible. Easy enough.

This particular party was themed around pictures. Because of this, the saying was “Wishing you S’More Picture Perfect Memories! Thanks for coming!” If you look close enough at the favor, you will see that the treat includes a couple graham crackers, two large marshmallows, and a bite-size Hershey bar. The snack bags are easy to locate, typically in the party aisle of the store. You can decide what color to use for your paper, and using craft scissors will help you to have a unique design when cutting out the squares. Simply tie each cut-out square to your filled bag, and voila! When you’ve made all of your favors (and have only eaten a couple), find a cute basket and throw them into it, and you are done.

Each item is made with love, and each game will show your personal touch. But no matter how creative you get with your ideas and no matter what inspiration you pull from this blog or from your own Pinterest boards, I do want to highlight one last piece of advice: Have an engagement party that is true to the couple and their personalities. Find out their favorite food; decorate with pictures of them. Have fun inside jokes that only the two of them might know. Whatever. Obviously, if you are organizing this, then, they trust and love you. And you know them well enough to create a party that will honor and celebrate them and their love for each other.

[Originally published on previous blog on May 23, 2014.]