Bringing an Excel Guest List into Brunchie — Just Drop the File

You already did the work — don't do it again

Your guest list is somewhere. A shared Google Sheet your bridal party kept adding to. An Excel file your mom emailed with her side of the family. A CSV your planner exported from their system. A PDF from Zola. Whichever it is, you've got names, maybe emails, sitting in a file.

The last thing you want to do is retype 150 names into a new tool. You shouldn't have to. Brunchie is free; switching over takes 30 seconds.

What works today: drop the file in

The fastest path: open Brunchie's invite modal and use the Upload file tab. Brunchie reads the file with AI, you confirm the parsed rows on a review screen, then bulk-send invites in one click. Nothing emails until you say so.

What works today: paste from the spreadsheet

The fastest path right now: open your Excel file or Google Sheet, select the Name column, copy, and paste into Brunchie's invite modal.

1. Open your hangout and click Invite.
2. Choose the Add by name tab.
3. Paste the names. Brunchie accepts comma-, newline-, and tab-separated lists, so a copied spreadsheet column works straight from the clipboard. So does a comma-separated paragraph from a notes app, or an email signature block.
4. Click Add to list. Each line becomes one guest on the People tab.

If your file has emails too, hop over to the Invite by email tab and paste those — same paste-friendly behavior, and each emailed guest gets a one-click sign-in link. You can promote any of them to Cohost (planner-equivalent edit access) from the People tab afterward.

For 150 guests, the paste-and-add round trip takes a couple of minutes. No retyping, no Excel formula gymnastics, no app-switching mid-call.

What shipped: full document upload (Excel · CSV · PDF · image)

The drop-the-whole-file path is now live. From the invite modal:

1. Click Invite on your hangout.
2. Open the Upload file tab.
3. Drag in your .xlsx, .csv, .pdf, or a screenshot/photo of a printed list. Up to 25 MB.
4. Brunchie's AI reads the file (5–30 seconds for spreadsheets, up to a minute for PDFs and photos).
5. The review screen shows every parsed row with a confidence score. Edit names inline, drop bad rows, then click Send invites to N.

Low-confidence rows (partly-obscured names from a phone photo, malformed email addresses) highlight in amber so you spot them before sending. Nothing emails until you click Send invites — so a half-imported list never accidentally pings half your wedding party.

If your data isn't a guest list but a seating chart, those imports are also AI-powered.

If your data isn't a guest list but a seating chart, those imports are already AI-powered. From the Edit Seating Chart screen:

• Drop a PDF (a venue-provided floor plan, an export from another planning tool) and the AI extracts tables, dance floor, stages, and venue items as editable canvas elements.
• Drop a phone photo of a hand-sketched chart on a napkin or whiteboard. Same AI pipeline reads the layout and lays it out on the canvas.
• Drop a CSV/XLSX of tables + capacities and the chart skeleton appears in seconds.

For the full walkthrough, see the Importing Data guide and the seating-chart import post.

Common questions

Can I paste from Google Sheets directly?

Yes. Select the column, copy, paste into the Add by name tab. Spreadsheet copies arrive tab-separated and Brunchie treats each line as one guest.

What about a PDF guest list?

Drop it into the Upload file tab. Brunchie's AI reads PDF exports from Zola, The Knot, vendor planners, or anything you print-to-PDF from a spreadsheet. You'll see the parsed rows on the review screen before any invite goes out.

What if names and emails are interleaved?

Drop the file into Upload file — the AI parser handles mixed-column tables (name + email + RSVP + plus-one all in one row). For paste-only flows, separate them: copy the name column to Add by name, copy the email column to Invite by email.

What if I have multiple files (one per family side)?

Paste each one separately. Brunchie's People tab shows your full list as you add, so you can spot and remove duplicates before sending invitations.

Can I import dietary, plus-ones, table assignments?

The Upload file flow imports name + email today and parks dietary, plus-one, and table assignments for the next iteration. Set those per-guest on the People tab once the list lands. Table assignments specifically come in via the seating chart's own AI import (PDF / photo / spreadsheet) — see the Importing Data guide for that flow.

Can Brunchie match my imported guests to existing accounts?

Yes — when an imported email matches a Brunchie user, that user gets a real attendee record (no second sign-up). Unknown emails get a one-click sign-in invitation. Name-only rows become invitations you can email later when you have an address.

From spreadsheet to seating chart, today

1. Open Brunchie → Invite → Upload file → drop your .xlsx / .csv / .pdf / screenshot (5 seconds).
2. Brunchie reads the file (5–30 seconds for tables, up to a minute for PDFs).
3. Review the parsed rows, fix anything that needs a tweak, click Send invites to N.
4. Open the seating chart and use smart auto-assign to drop everyone onto tables based on party groupings.

That's it. Your spreadsheet stops being a fragile single-purpose file and starts being a list inside the same tool you'll use for seating, RSVPs, the timeline, and the photobooth.

Start a hangout and try it at brunchie.app.