Somewhere between the engagement photos and the venue deposit, someone's going to ask: "Wait, do we actually have everyone's address?" The answer is almost always no.
The Contact Collector fixes that before it becomes a problem. Share one link and your guests fill out a simple form — their mailing address, phone number, and email save directly to your Joy guest list. No chasing people down. No spreadsheet. Just the information you need, already where you need it.
Here's how it works:
Personalize your Contact Collector
Share with friends and family
Your guests fill out a simple form
View responses in your guest list
From your Event Dashboard, click Collect Contacts to get started.
Set Up Your Contact Collector
The Settings tab is where you configure how your Contact Collector looks and what it displays when guests receive it.
Click Settings from the top navigation.
Under Cover Art, select an Animation or click Image to upload your own photo. This image appears in the link preview, the email, and the form your guests see.
Under Link Preview Text, edit the message guests will see when the link is shared. Click Suggest to generate options, or write your own. The character limit is 120.
Toggle Include Event Website on if you want guests to see a link to your Joy event website after they submit their details.
Toggle Show Event Date on to display your event date on the form.
Under What to Collect, choose which details guests must, may, or won't share. For each field (Email, Mobile Phone, and Mailing Address), select one of the following from the dropdown:
Required — guests must fill this in before submitting
Optional — guests can fill this in but don't have to
Hidden — guests won't see this field at all
Note: At least one field must be set to Required at all times. If you set two fields to Hidden, the third will remain required automatically.
Click Save Contact Collector.
Next, make sure your Contact Collector is enabled. Click Contact Collector is On/Off in the top navigation to open the settings dropdown.
Toggle Collect Guest Details on to activate your Contact Collector.
Check Allow guests to add +1s if you want guests to be able to submit contact details for their entire household in a single form submission. This reduces duplicate entries in your guest list.
Share Your Contact Collector
There are two ways to get your Contact Collector to your guests: send it directly through Joy, or copy the link and share it yourself.
Send via Joy
Sending through Joy lets you reach guests already on your guest list without leaving the platform. Email is available to everyone. Sending by text through Joy requires Messaging Plus, a one-time purchase.
Note: If you want to send your Contact Collector link as a text message but don't have Messaging Plus, you can copy the link from the Share Link button and send it from your own phone — no purchase needed.
From your Event Dashboard, click Collect Contacts, then select the Send tab.
Set your delivery method and compose your message
Under Delivery Method, select Email, Text (requires Messaging Plus), or Both.
In the From field, confirm or edit the name your guests will see.
For email sends, add a Subject.
Edit the Message field to match your voice. Joy shows a live character count for SMS — if your message exceeds one text, it will indicate that below the field.
The Link field is auto-populated with your Contact Collector URL. No action needed.
Select your recipients
Click Select Recipients to open the guest selector.
Search by name or tag, or click Select All to add everyone.
Check the box next to each guest you want to include.
Guests without the contact info required for your selected delivery method will show a warning icon and cannot be selected. Click Edit Guest List at the bottom of the selector to add missing information before sending.
Click Select [X] People when done.
Confirm and send
Click Continue to move to the Confirm & Send page.
Review your recipient list. Click Edit Recipients to make changes.
Click Send Test Email to preview the email version before it goes out.
Click Send Now.
If you selected Text and haven't purchased Messaging Plus yet, you'll be prompted to complete that purchase before the message sends.
Share the Link Directly
If you'd rather share the Contact Collector yourself — by text, WhatsApp, email, or any other way you communicate — copy the link and send it however you like. No Messaging Plus required.
Click Share Link in the top navigation to copy your link. Then open your preferred app — iMessage, WhatsApp, email, or anything else — and paste it into a new message to send it yourself.
Note: The link can be shared with anyone. You don't need to have guests already in your Joy guest list.
What Your Guests See
When a guest clicks your link, they land on a page showing your cover art, event name, and your link preview message. From there, they click Provide Details and fill out a short form with their contact info and mailing address. If Allow guests to add +1s is on, they can submit details for their whole household in one go. Once they confirm everything looks right, their details save automatically to your Joy guest list.
Viewing Responses
Click Activity from the top navigation to track responses as they come in. The Recent Updates list shows each guest who has submitted the form and the date they responded. Hover over any guest and click View Details to see the contact information they submitted. You can also view addresses and phone numbers directly in your guest list.
From here you can also:
Click Edit Guest List to go directly to your guest list and manage incoming entries.
Click Upload Spreadsheet if you already have a contact list somewhere else and want to import it into Joy directly.
If a guest submits the form and a matching entry already exists in your guest list, a duplicate row will be created. Select both rows in your guest list and click Merge Duplicate to combine them into a single entry. The row you click first takes priority if both contain data in the same column. For more, see Merge Duplicate Guests.
Tip: Turning on Allow guests to add +1s significantly reduces duplicates by letting household members submit together.
Updating a Guest's Contact Info
If a guest's address or contact details change, there are two ways to update your guest list:
The guest can click your Contact Collector link again and resubmit. Merge the new row with the existing one in your guest list.
Any Joy admin can go to the guest list, click the guest's avatar to open the Guest Details screen, and update their name, email, phone number, or address directly.
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! 🙂