Sometimes, you don’t want to invite everyone to everything — and that’s OK! You can keep private events hidden from any guests who are not invited.
For example, if you don’t want all of your guests to see your rehearsal dinner details, you can set it up so only those invited to the rehearsal dinner will see it.
When your guests enter their names on your website or app, they will see only the events they are invited to.
Using Guest Tags to select guests who should see an event
Guest Tags are really useful throughout Joy: You can use them to create groups of guests that should receive certain messages, be asked certain RSVP questions, and see certain events.
For example, you can show Rehearsal dinner details only to guests that are invited to the rehearsal dinner (and tagged, say, “Rehearsal”).
Once you use Guest Tags to tag guests, head over to your Schedule page from your admin dashboard.
Click on an event that you only want to show to specific guests, like “Rehearsal”. You’ll see an “Event Privacy” section at the bottom. Click on “Edit” to select specific guests that can see this event.
Next, on the “Who can see this?” box, you can determine which guests will see this question. Select “Specific guests”, then, next to “Show guests with tag”, click “Select”:
Then select the tags you want, and click “Select”:
Selecting individual guests who should see an event
You can also just select individual guests by name. Next to “in addition to the following guests”, click “Add”:
Then select your individual guests:
And click “Add”.
Bringing it all together
Once you have selected the tags you want, and any additional guests you want to include, you can review the tags and additional guests you have selected:
Click Done, and you are all set. This question is now set to only be asked to those specific guests.
What will my guests see?
When your guests visit your website and click or scroll to the Schedule page, they’ll see a “Find My Invite” box on the website (if you have private events). They will need to enter their first and last names into that box, and then the site will match their entry with their name on your guest list.
On the mobile app, guests will need to enter their names when they first join your event.
Once matched, they will only see the events that you want them to see on your Schedule page.
What if my guests enter a different name than what I entered on the guest list?
That’s a great question!
Here’s an example of this scenario – if Michael Bach enters his name as Mike Bach under ‘Find My Invite,’ and you entered his name as Michael Bach on the guest list, he will get a message saying, “Oops, we couldn’t find “Mike Bach” on the guest list. Enter an alternative spelling or a nickname and we’ll try again.”
If he tries several times and still can’t find his invite, then he will also have the option to view the public version of the website instead, and in that case, he won’t see any private events that he may be invited to.
If he views the public version of the site at this point, the owner of the event will also receive an email notifying them that a guest attempted to view the site or app, but their name was not found. It will also give some steps of what the owner could do in this scenario:
Tips and Tricks
If all of the events on your Schedule are public, guests do not need to enter their names on to view your Schedule. Only if you have any private events will your guests will be asked to enter their names.
To prevent misspellings or other errors, you can send e-cards through Joy! Each card contains personalized links for the guest, so they won’t have to enter their name.
Before setting up your schedule, set up your Guest Tags. This has many benefits:
- If you forget someone or want more people to be able to see an event, you can just add the right tag to them.
- If you want to send an email only to people who are going to your Rehearsal, you can use the same tag to select recipients of the email.
- If you want to invite the same group to multiple events, tags are handy. Instead of having to select those same 30 people each time, you can just apply the same tag.
FAQs
I’m inviting my “Wedding Party” to an event. I want to invite another friend who’s not in my wedding party. Can I do that?
Yes you certainly can! See “Selecting individual guests who should see an event“, above.
How can I collect RSVPs for my private events?
Check out this article to learn how to set up your RSVP questions for private events.
Do guests get a personalized schedule?
Yes. After they type in their name, and if they’re found on the guest, they’ll see their own personalized schedule (and a box will appear at the bottom of the site confirming that the site has been personalized for them).
I got an email saying that a guest who wasn’t on my guest list is looking at my website. What does this mean?
That means that guest did not match their name accurately with their name on your guest list, or a guest that was not invited or listed on your guest list tried to view your website. If their name does not match what you have on your guest list (or they are not listed on your guest list at all) we will not show them any of your private events and they will only able to view the public version of your schedule page. (You will also be notified via email if they choose to view the public version of your site).
How can I see who is invited to each event?
From the Schedule page on your admin dashboard, if you click on the pencil icon for the event that you want to view the invitees for, you will then see the “Who should see this?” box that shows who is currently invited to that event. You can also click on “Edit” to see the audience selector, and click on the tag(s) to see which guests are tagged with those tags:
I’m not able to select any tag or guest.
Make sure that you’ve added guests to your guest list and tagged your guests.
Is there a way to see what each person is invited to?
Not yet. For now, if you have used tags, review the tags on each guest on your guest list to help make the connection between the guests and the events they can see.
Why do I still see everything?
Are you the wedding owner or admin? They see everything, even events set to “no one.”
Can I preview how this will work as a guest?
Yes you can! But please note that you should do this in an Incognito or private browsing window, since when you’re logged in, you’ll always be viewing as yourself and the site will recognize you. (From a browser like Chrome, you can head over to the ‘File’ option in the top toolbar and select “New Incognito Window”). Once you are in a new incognito window, click ‘Find My Invite’ and enter the name of a guest to see how the schedule will appear for them.
Still have some questions?
Click on the chat bubble in the lower right-hand corner of your screen, or email us at support@withjoy.com to talk with our Customer Experience team.