If you’ve already organized your wedding guests into a spreadsheet, you can import it into Joy. If you’ve already entered guests into your Joy guest list, importing a list will append to your list, not replace it.
1. Format your spreadsheet
Joy will import the names and emails of your guests, and group them as parties, as long as your spreadsheet is formatted in the following way. We have a Google Sheets template you can start with or use as a reference.
Formatting guidelines
- Starting in the first column, the first row of your spreadsheet must contain column headings for first name, last name, and email. These 3 column headers are required in order to import the guest list. Please note: the column headers need to be in all lowercase letters and cannot contain any additional characters.
- If you’d like, include a column heading for the party. This is optional.
- You can currently only import first name, last name, email addresses, and party columns. The site does not support importing additional columns.
- Each individual guest must be in their own row.
- For a given guest, all fields are optional. You can import a guest with just a first name, last name, email, or party. But at least one of these is required; completely blank rows won’t be imported.
- The first name and last name fields cannot contain any symbols (ie. &, +, etc).
Parties and plus ones
To group guests as parties, enter the same party value, such as “The Smiths”, for each guest in the party. Joy will automatically group these guests as a party in your guest list.
This works for plus-ones, too. In the example above, the guest Christopher Wallace has a plus one: The party “CW” groups this guest with an otherwise blank row, whose details can be added after importing.
The party can be named anything you want, such as “The Smiths”, or “Joe P and guest” or “Mary W and family”. This value won’t be visible in Joy; it’s just used to group your guests together under the hood.
2. Save your spreadsheet as a CSV file
Once you’ve formatted your guest list, save it as a CSV file. CSV (“Comma-separated values”) is a common format, supported by Excel, Google Sheets, and Numbers, that Joy can easily read.
- From Excel: File > Save as … > Save as type > CSV
- From Google Sheets: File > Download > Comma-separated values (.csv, current sheet)
- From Numbers: File > Export to… > CSV…
3. Import your CSV file into Joy
Once you’ve saved your formatted spreadsheet as a CSV file, you’re ready to import it into Joy. From your admin dashboard, click Guest List, then Add Guests in the upper right:
From there, click Import Guest List:
Browse your computer to find the file that you want to upload.
That’s it! All the guests on your spreadsheet have been added to your guest list, and grouped as parties. You’re ready to send Save the Dates and Invitations.
Exporting your Guest List
You can export your guest list to work with it in another program or to print it.
- To export all guests, click “Export All Guests” in the toolbar.
- To export only certain guests, first select the guests you want to export, then click “Export Selection” in the toolbar.
Your guest list will automatically download to your computer as a CSV file, which can be opened it in Excel, Google Sheets, and Numbers.
Still have some questions?
Ask us directly! Click on the black and white chat bubble in the bottom-right corner of this page to ask us your questions, or you can email us at support@withjoy.com. You’ll get a friendly response from someone on our team! 🙂