Sending us your guest list

The columns we need

Send us an Excel or CSV file with one guest per row and these headings in the first row. Our team imports it and checks every row before anything is sent.

Every guest needs at least an email address or a mobile number, or we have no way to reach them. Any other columns you have, such as a table number, region or dietary note, are welcome. We keep them with the guest.

Send a separate list for each event, even when the same people are invited to more than one.

Excel, CSV and several sheets

Excel (.xlsx or .xls) and CSV are all fine. If your workbook has several sheets, for example one per dealer or branch, keep the same headings on each and tell us which sheets to use. We can bring them in together and still see which sheet each row came from.

Don’t worry if Excel drops the 0 at the start of a mobile number. We put it back. Every row is checked before anything is saved, and we’ll tell you about duplicates and any rows we can’t use.

Phone numbers

Write mobile numbers in full international format, starting with the country code: +27 82 123 4567 rather than 082 123 4567. WhatsApp needs the country code, and guests outside South Africa can only be reached this way.

Spaces inside the number are fine. One number per cell, and only mobile numbers, because a landline can’t receive WhatsApp.

Two people, one address

Couples and colleagues sometimes share one inbox or one phone, and a personal assistant often handles mail for several people. That’s fine. Put each person on their own row with their own name, and each gets their own invitation with their own reply link, even when the address is the same.

If the same person appears twice, for example on two dealer lists, we invite them once. We treat two rows as the same person when the email or mobile matches and the name matches too. So please make sure each row’s name belongs to the person on it.

Mistakes that stop a send

These come up on almost every list. Each one means a guest never receives their invitation.

• Two addresses in one cell. “john@company.co.za; pa@company.co.za” can’t be sent to. Keep one address per cell, and put a second person on their own row.
• Phone numbers in the email column, or the other way round. Usually the result of columns shifting when lists are merged.
• Typos in the domain. “gmial.com”, “.co.za” written as “.za.co”, or a company domain that changed after a rebrand.
• Stray characters. Spaces, quote marks or invisible characters copied in from Word or Outlook. We clean what we can, but check addresses pasted from other documents.
• People who have left. An address for someone no longer at the company bounces. If you know of changes, update the list before sending it.

If any rows can’t be used, we’ll tell you which ones and why, so you can send corrections.

Adding people later

Send us the extra names in the same format. We invite only the new people. Everyone already invited doesn’t receive a second invitation. Someone new who shares an address with a guest already invited still gets their own.

Before the invitations go out

If most of your guests work at a few large companies, ask their IT departments to allow our invitations about two weeks before the send. Corporate filters are the most common reason a guest never sees an invitation. The allowlist request has the text to forward to them.