Password-Protected Wedding Website: When to Lock It and How

Lock your wedding website if it lists the schedule, the hotels or anything about your family. A page with only the date, the town and a registry link can stay open. Either way, switch off search engine visibility too: on Zola and The Knot that's a separate setting from the password. Since every guest shares one password, the riskiest details shouldn't go on the site at all.

Should your wedding website have a password?

For most weddings, yes. Once a site says where you'll be at 3:30 on a Saturday, which hotel your grandparents booked and when the shuttle leaves, asking each guest to type one word is a fair trade.

The people a password keeps out are rarely strangers. It's the coworker who didn't make the list, or the ex who still follows your sister. Zola's own advice on the subject mentions "curious exes" and "wedding crashers".

The cost, which Zola admits too, is that some guests will lose the password and message you, usually at the worst moment. Picture your uncle at the hotel front desk the night before, bag in one hand, phone in the other, trying to remember whether it was "lemontree" or "lemon tree". Joy keeps a help article for exactly this guest, titled "I'm Being Prompted for a Password. What Should I Do?" Two habits head off most of those messages: print the password right next to the web address every time, and choose one that's easy to type on a phone.

What a password stops, and what it doesn't

Most privacy problems come from people who already have the password, and from side doors you didn't know the site had.

Google is plain about it: private content should be password-protected, and if it's already in Google's results, Google "will eventually remove that content" (Google Search Central). The Knot's help center can't agree with itself. One article says a password-protected site "will not index to Google". Another, edited in October 2026, says a password "does not prevent it from appearing in search results" (The Knot help center). So do both: set the password, switch the search setting off, and a month later search your names in a private window.

Forwarding is the bigger gap. Squarespace's help center says "it's not possible to create unique passwords for different people" (Squarespace), and that holds for every site-wide password: one key, copied into 150 envelopes and from there into anyone's group chat. Plan on someone you didn't invite seeing the site at some point.

Registries are the side door people forget. Zola has no registry password and suggests switching off registry search instead, and The Knot says making your website private "won't automatically hide your registry".

What to leave off the site, even with a password

Some privacy checklists warn against putting your home address on a public wedding website, as if a password made it fine. A password printed on 120 invitations isn't private. A better test: if you'd mind a screenshot of it reaching a stranger, leave it off.

The honeymoon row can look overcautious. But the National Crime Prevention Council's advice for time away is to put lights on timers so the house looks occupied, and a page saying you're in Lisbon from June 13 to 27 undoes every timer you buy.

A wedding website also hands a scammer your names, a date and a believable reason to ask your guests for money. The FTC's rule of thumb is short: "Only scammers will tell you to buy a gift card" (FTC). Most of your guests won't have read that page, so add one entry to your site's questions section:

For everything that does belong on the site, see what to put on a wedding website.

Other ways to keep a wedding website private

A site-wide password isn't the only setting. Most builders offer some of these as well, and you can combine them.

Hidden from search, no password

Anyone with the link gets in, and nobody stumbles on the site from Google. Offbeat Bride called this "security by obscurity" back in 2014. It suits a site with nothing sensitive on it and a guest list heavy on grandparents. Joy and Minted keep sites out of search results unless you opt in, and BrideSpark wedding websites are always hidden from search engines, with no setting to change it. On The Knot and Zola, check the search setting yourself.

Events only some guests can see

This is the tool for the rehearsal dinner or welcome drinks for out-of-towners. On Zola, switch off "Make event public to all guests" and the event shows only to invited guests when they RSVP. The Knot's private events "never display on the wedding website" and appear only in the RSVP pop-up for the people invited. Joy can show whole pages only to guests you choose. Whatever you use, keep invite-only events off the schedule everyone can read.

A password on some pages only

Joy lets you set each page to Private, Public or Hidden, so the date and registry can stay open while the schedule and travel pages are locked. Squarespace and Wix offer page passwords too. One catch on Wix: a password on the homepage restricts the rest of the site "unless someone has a direct link to other site pages", per Wix's help page. Put a password on each page that matters; the homepage alone isn't enough.

Guests sign in with their name

Some builders ask visitors who they are instead of handing out one shared password. Joy's guest-only pages open when a guest types a first and last name from your guest list, and Riley & Grey can ask visitors for a name or email. A forwarded link alone gets nobody in, though anyone who knows a guest's full name can type it.

BrideSpark uses a name or email lookup for replies, not for the page. Only people on your guest list can RSVP online and the site never lists who's invited, so a forwarded link can't add a stranger to your headcount. Without a password, though, anyone with the link can still read the site.

Fully hidden while you build

Zola has a Visibility switch, and when it's set to Hidden, "no one can visit your website". Squarespace sites start out private. Check yours before you share anything: on the WeddingWire forums, one user had no idea she had a wedding website at all until a friend mentioned it.

What makes a good wedding website password

Wix caps site passwords at 15 characters and refuses special characters such as %, ! or @. Joy allows only three symbols (!, & and +). Squarespace passwords are case-sensitive and Joy's aren't, and your guests won't know which kind you have. The format that passes every one of those rules, and survives a phone keyboard, is two or three lowercase words run together: 8 to 15 letters, no spaces, symbols or capitals.

It also has to be something the people you're keeping out can't guess. Zola's advice is that "the date of your wedding plus your last name works well", which is exactly what the ex and the uninvited coworker would try first.

Make up your own rather than taking one from this table (these are on the internet now), and never reuse a password from anywhere else. Squarespace warns never to use your Squarespace account password as a site password, and the same goes for your email: this one gets printed on paper and handed to a hundred people.

Change it if it turns up somewhere public, or if someone you've had to uninvite still has it. Every guest then needs the new one, so send it the same day (wording below).

Where to put the password on invitations, with wording to copy

Wherever the website address goes, the password goes right under it: on the save-the-date if the site is live by then, on the invitation or its details card, and in every text, email or WhatsApp that carries the link. A guest with the address and no password is the one texting you at 11 p.m.

When a bride on the WeddingWire forums worried that the password would look like an eyesore on her one-page invitation, replies split between a separate details card, a slip in the save-the-date envelope and printing it on the invitation itself ("know your audience"). We'd use the details card if you have one and the invitation if you don't. It's one short line. The rest of each card is covered in our save-the-date wording and wedding invitation wording guides.

On the invitation or details card

On the save-the-date

In a text, email or WhatsApp

On the lock screen, if your builder takes a message

Don't put "I lost the password" in your site's FAQ: nobody who needs that answer can read it. If the lock screen takes a line of text, put it there.

Before anything goes to print, open the site in a private or incognito window. The Knot and Joy both warn that your own browser may skip the password because it knows you're the owner, so you won't see what guests see. Then try it on the oldest phone in the family.

Which wedding website builders let you lock the site

If you want whole pages that only some guests can open, Joy is the most flexible of these, and we'd send you there for it. Zola and The Knot both keep invite-only events off the main site; just remember that their registries sit outside the lock. Squarespace and Wix make sense if you're building a general website anyway. The wider comparison is in the best wedding website builders.

Where the password setting is

• Zola: Account Settings, then the Privacy tab, then "Website Password" and Yes. In the app, tap the gear icon on the Website tab.
• The Knot: Wedding Website, then Manage Website, then the pencil icon next to your URL, and switch Password protection on.
• Joy: set your Event Password, then in the Event Dashboard go to Website, Manage Pages, Modify All and choose Private (or change pages one at a time with each page's Visibility button).
• Squarespace: the Site Availability panel, then Password Protected.
• Wix (Wix Editor): Settings, then Site Password, then Password Holders.
• BrideSpark: Website, then Address & privacy.

Frequently asked questions

Should a wedding website be password protected?

Yes, if it lists your schedule, hotel details or anything about your family. A page with only the date, the town and a registry link can stay open. Either way, switch off search engine visibility, which on Zola and The Knot is a separate setting from the password.

Can Google find a password-protected wedding website?

Google recommends a password for private content and says pages it had already listed will eventually drop out. But one of The Knot's help articles says a password doesn't stop a site appearing in search results, so switch off the search setting as well and allow up to about 30 days for an old listing to disappear.

What's a good wedding website password?

Two or three lowercase words run together, 8 to 15 letters in all, that mean something to you and nothing to a stranger. Leave out symbols and capitals: Wix rejects special characters and stops at 15 characters, and some builders are case-sensitive. Avoid your names, and your surname plus the wedding date, because the people you're keeping out already know both.

Where do you put the wedding website password on the invitation?

Directly under the website address: on a details card in the envelope, or as the last line of a single-card invitation, for example "Password: lemontree". Add it to the save-the-date too if the site is live by then, and to every message that carries the link.

Is it rude to password protect a wedding website?

No. It protects your guests too, since the site often says which hotel they're staying in. It only annoys people when the password is hard to find or hard to type.

Can I hide one event from some guests?

Yes, on Zola, The Knot and Joy. Zola and The Knot let you make an event private so only invited guests see it when they RSVP, and Joy can show a page only to guests you choose. Either way, leave that event off the schedule everyone can see.

What if a guest forgets the password?

They'll ask you. The Knot and Zola say they can't give your password to guests, and Joy won't without your permission. Print it next to the website address and repeat it in every message that carries the link.

Can I password protect my wedding registry?

Usually not on its own. Zola has no registry password and suggests turning off registry search instead. The Knot says making your website private won't automatically hide your registry, which has its own address, but its support team can take the registry out of Google results or hide it from your website.