Import Your Zola Guests and Send Personalized Text Messages
Zola can send a text. What it cannot do is run a sequence for six weeks, hold a conversation with a guest, or coordinate your wedding party on the day itself. Import your Zola guest list into Text My Wedding and get messaging that behaves like a real tool.
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Already using Zola?
Then keep it. Zola's website and registry are genuinely good, and Zola does support guest texting — we are not going to pretend otherwise. The question is whether one-off sends are enough for the six months in front of you.
If you want a sequence that follows up on its own, replies you can actually read and answer, groups fine-grained enough to text eleven people instead of a hundred and forty, and messages that fire on the wedding day while your phone is in someone else's pocket, that is where we come in.
- Scheduled sequences months in advance, not one send at a time
- Two-way replies in an inbox you share with your partner and planner
- Unlimited groups: wedding party, out-of-towners, Friday dinner, brunch
- Photo and video collection from guests during and after the wedding
How to export your Zola guest list and text it
Zola exports a spreadsheet; we import it. Nothing connects to your Zola account, and your website, RSVP page and registry keep working exactly as they do now.
Export from Zola
Open your guest list in Zola and download it as a CSV or Excel file. It carries names, parties, RSVP status and any phone numbers Zola has collected for you.
Add a Groups column (optional)
Before uploading, you can add a column called Groups with a comma-separated list — Wedding party, Out of town, Friday dinner. Those groups are created for you during the import, which saves rebuilding them by hand.
Upload the file
In Text My Wedding, go to Guests → Bulk Import and drop in the file. Choose the worksheet with your guests, usually Sheet1, and you will see a preview of exactly what we parsed before anything is saved.
Map the columns
Zola's export does not split first and last name, so map its Name column to First Name and leave Last Name empty. Map Phone, and map Groups if you added it. Duplicates are flagged and skipped.
Schedule the whole arc
Website announcement, RSVP nudges, the hotel deadline for out-of-towners, wedding-week logistics and the day-of timing message. Written once in an afternoon, sent on their own dates.
Screenshots of every step are in our Zola import guide.
Send your Zola wedding website by text
Zola itself tells couples to share the wedding website by text, and they are right — it is the shortest path between a guest and an RSVP. We do it at scale: every guest gets their own message with their own name and party size on it, not a forwarded group text.
Each link is shortened and tracked, so the next message can be aimed at the guests who never opened the first one. That is the whole trick behind finishing a headcount without phoning anybody.
Sequences, not single sends
The gap between a list that is 80% answered and one that is finished is follow-up nobody has to remember to do. Each step here goes only to guests who still have not replied.
Personalized with the guest's name and party size.
"Hi Dana — just checking this reached you."
Sent only to the out-of-town group. Groups earn their keep here.
"We give the caterer numbers Monday — can you make it?"
Zola guest messaging vs. Text My Wedding
Zola has real texting, so this is not a question of whether it works — it is a question of how far it goes. Here is the honest line between the two.
| Capability | Zola | Text My Wedding |
|---|---|---|
| Wedding website and registry | ✓Keep using it | —We link to yours |
| Text messages to guests | ✓Included | ✓The whole product |
| Collecting missing phone numbers | ✓Built in | ✓Self-serve link and QR code |
| Scheduled multi-step sequences | —Send-now messages | ✓Any date, any group |
| Two-way replies | ◐Limited | ✓Shared inbox, unlimited |
| Custom groups and segments | ◐Basic filters | ✓Unlimited, reusable |
| Day-of and wedding-party messages | —— | ✓Timed to your run of show |
| Photo and video collection | —— | ✓Guests reply with photos |
| Planner or co-host access | —— | ✓Shared account access |
Comparison reflects publicly documented features and is checked periodically. Zola is a trademark of its owner; Text My Wedding is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Zola.
Using Text My Wedding alongside Zola
What the export contains, where Zola's own texting fits, and how couples usually divide the work between the two.
What the Zola export actually contains
Names, party sizes, RSVP status, addresses and whatever phone numbers Zola has gathered. Because Zola prompts guests for their mobile number during RSVP, these exports tend to arrive in better shape than most — often with two thirds or more of the numbers already filled in.
The one quirk worth knowing: Zola exports a single Name column rather than separate first and last names. Map it to First Name during the import and personalization still works, because the name shown in a message is the first token anyway.
Do you have to leave Zola?
No, and most couples do not. The website, the RSVP page and the registry stay on Zola, and every message we send points back at that site. Nothing about your guests' experience of your website changes.
What moves is the outbound communication — the invitations, the reminders, the wedding-week logistics — and the replies those generate.
An alternative or an add-on?
Either, depending on how you like to work. Some couples stop using Zola's texting entirely and run everything from one place, which avoids guests getting near-duplicate messages from two systems.
Others keep Zola for its RSVP-linked reminders and use Text My Wedding for the sequences, the wedding-party coordination and the day itself. If you do run both, split them by purpose rather than by audience, so nobody gets the same reminder twice.
Where groups pay for themselves
The hotel block deadline only concerns out-of-town guests. The rehearsal dinner concerns about eighteen people. Photo timing concerns the wedding party. Sending any of those to a hundred and forty guests trains everyone to ignore you, and by the wedding week that is exactly what has happened.
Groups are set up once — during the import if you add a Groups column, or in a few seconds afterwards — and every later message picks from them.
Replies, and why they matter more than you expect
Guests answer a text. They rarely answer an email, and they almost never open a second website form. Every reply lands in one shared inbox, which means your partner or your planner can handle a question about parking without forwarding a screenshot.
YES and NO replies update your headcount automatically. Everything else — dietary restrictions, a plus-one question, a flight that moved — sits there until a human deals with it.
After the wedding
The same guest list that received your invitation can collect photos. Guests text pictures back to the same number they have been messaging all along, which is a considerably lower bar than asking a hundred people to install an app at a reception.
It also means the thank-you message goes out to a list that is already accurate, three days later, while people still remember the weekend.
Text templates for Zola couples
Written to sit alongside a Zola site and registry. Swap the names, dates and link for your own.
Website launch
Hi Dana! Amelia & Julian, Sept 11, Hudson NY. RSVP, hotels and registry are all here: ameliaandjulian.zola.com 🤍
Registry-safe nudge
Dana, a few people have asked — everything's on our site, including the registry: ameliaandjulian.zola.com. Your being there is genuinely the whole thing, though.
Out-of-towners
Heads up, Dana — the Hudson Inn block releases July 15. The booking link is on our site under Travel.
Day before
Tomorrow! Ceremony at 4:00 sharp at The Willow Barn. The shuttle leaves the Inn at 3:15. It's a grass lawn, so plan your shoes accordingly. 🤍
Zola and Text My Wedding questions
Does Zola already text guests?
Yes. Zola supports guest text messaging and helps you collect missing phone numbers. Couples come to us when they want scheduled multi-step sequences, unlimited two-way replies, finer-grained groups, day-of coordination and photo collection on top of that.
How do I export my Zola guest list?
Open your guest list in Zola and download it as a CSV or Excel file. Upload it in Text My Wedding under Guests → Bulk Import, pick the worksheet with your guests, and map the columns. Zola's export uses a single Name column, so map that to First Name.
Do I have to leave Zola?
No. Keep the website, the registry and the RSVP page. Text My Wedding handles delivery and follow-up, and every message we send can point at the Zola site you already built.
Can I bring my Zola groups across?
Add a column called Groups to the exported file with comma-separated group names before you upload it, and those groups are created during the import. Otherwise you can build groups in the app in a few seconds each.
Can my planner use it too?
Yes. Give them access to the account and they can send, schedule and reply from the same shared inbox — which is what you want on the wedding day, when you should not be holding a phone.
What happens when a guest replies?
The reply lands in your shared inbox. YES and NO answers update your headcount automatically; anything else waits for a person, and you can answer from a browser or your phone.
Is this a Zola guest messaging alternative or an add-on?
Either. Some couples replace Zola's texting entirely to avoid duplicate messages; most keep the Zola website and use Text My Wedding for everything that has to reach a phone.
Keep Zola. Upgrade the texting.
Import your list in about two minutes and schedule the entire message arc in one sitting.
Free to build your guest list and preview messages. You only pay when you are ready to send.