Sometimes, you might not want to invite everyone to your events — and that’s OK! Joy now lets you keep your private events hidden from any guests who are not invited. (It also lets you show different RSVP questions to different guests.) For example, if you don’t want all of your guests to see your rehearsal dinner details, you can hide that event accordingly so that only those invited to the rehearsal dinner will see it.
So, do you have any events that you want to keep private to specific guests?
You can decide which guests can view which events by making the event public (selecting ‘anyone who visits your website’) or by making the event private (by selecting specific labels that you assigned to guests, or by manually selecting guests from your guest list).
Joy lets you keep your private events hidden from any guests who are not invited.
When your guests successfully enter their names on your website or app, they will see only the events they are invited to!
How do I get set up?
Before being able to set certain events to private, it’s important to:
1) Have your guest list populated with guest names
2) Group guests by labels
3) Decide which guests will see which events on your Schedule page
1. Set Up For Private Events
Before we can get started, we’ll need to do a few small things.
First, add all the folks you want to have with you on your big day to your guest list. We need to have a list of your guests in order to know who to show which events to.
Group your guests together using labels like “Rehearsal Dinner” or “Evening Guests” so that you can specify the events that you want them to see:
2. Choose Who Sees What
Now we’re ready to make some custom schedules!
From your Schedule page on the admin dashboard, click on the event you want to edit:
Under Basic Info you’ll see Event Privacy. Click on Edit.
Here, you’ll be able to select which guests should be able to view that specific event. This can be updated at any time, so don’t worry too much if things change.
For example, you can add “Rehearsal Dinner” to your schedule and set it to be visible to any guests with that label!
Do I have to use labels?
Nope, you don’t have to use labels! Using labels to distinguish your guests does have some advantages (which we discuss in our ‘Tips and Tricks’ section below). But if you would rather not use labels, you can just select individual guests from your guest list to invite to specific events.
On the audience selector, (‘who can see this?’) head down to the ‘In addition to the following guests’ option towards the bottom of the box, and click on the “Edit” option to the right. This will link you to your guest list where you can search for specific guests on your guest list by their names, and once they appear, select them by clicking on the grey box to the right side of their name. Once the box turns blue, then they have been successfully selected.
Be sure to click on the blue “Add” button at the bottom of the box once you have your guests selected to be sure they are added to that event.
What will my guests see?
Now that you’re set up to have private events, you’re probably wondering how the Schedule will look for your different guests. 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 successfully 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!
– Your guests will be asked to enter their names before viewing your Schedule if you have any private events. If all of the events on your Schedule are public, then they do not need to enter their names on the site in order to view the Schedule.
– To prevent misspellings or other errors, you can send e-cards through Joy! That way, your guests won’t have to enter their name to find their invitation.
– Use labels on your guest list FIRST to create “invite groups” for each event. This has many benefits:
- This makes it a lot easier to manage in the future, in case you forget someone or want to invite more people to an event. Just label them with the event, and they’ll be able to see it.
- Or for sending out emails to people who are going to your Rehearsal Dinner. Since you already made that label, you can filter for them and send them an email.
- Or if you want to invite the same group to multiple events. Instead of having to select those same 30 people each time, you can just pick the same group.
Top 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! In order to invite someone that is outside of a certain group of guests that you have labeled on your guest list, you should click on the “In addition to the following guests” option on the audience selector (“Who can see this?” box) on your Schedule page (from the admin dashboard):
Then you can select the guest that you want to add to that event by searching for and selecting their name. Be sure to click “Add” at the bottom of the box once your guests are selected! 
- 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 label(s) to see which guests are tagged with those labels:
- I’m stuck. I’m not able to select any label or guest. If you are having trouble, make sure that you’ve added all your guests to your guest list and tagged guests with the labels you would like. Check out this article that outlines how to add guests to your guest list, and how to add labels to those guests!
- Is there a way to see what each person is invited to? Not yet, but it’s coming soon. For now, a workaround, (if you have used labels) is just to go through your labels on your guest list, to see which guests are invited to special events like brunch, rehearsal etc:
- 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.