Connecting your mailbox

Connect the email address you use for your business and your emails with couples and suppliers sit on the wedding they belong to. Each person on your team connects their own. It takes about two minutes.

Before you start

• Gmail or Outlook: you sign in on Google's or Microsoft's own page, as you normally do, and press Allow. Keep your phone nearby in case they send you a code.
• IONOS and other hosts: have your email address and its password ready. With IONOS this is the password for the email address itself, not the one you use to log in to your IONOS account. If your email asks for an app password (some do when 2-step verification is on), make one in your email settings and use that.
• I Said Yes never sees or keeps your password. For IONOS and other hosts you type it on a secure sign-in page run by the service that connects mailboxes for us, never on ours.

What happens afterwards

Only your Inbox and Sent are brought in, from the last 90 days, and new emails follow within a few minutes of arriving. Gmail and Outlook usually take a few minutes for the first emails to appear; IONOS and other hosts can take up to an hour, because your host copies them over first. The page updates itself while it works, and you can carry on.

Each email is filed on a wedding when it is from or to an email address saved on that wedding (the couple's email), one of its suppliers or an open enquiry. Emails from anyone else wait in Messages, under Unfiled, for you to attach to a wedding.

Gmail

1. Before you start: you need to be able to sign in to your Gmail email, and have your phone nearby in case Google sends you a code. It takes about two minutes.
2. Go to Settings and, under Your mailbox, press Mailbox settings.
3. Under Which kind of mailbox is it?, choose Google.
4. Under What should it be connected for?, choose Reading my mail, or Reading, and sending from here if you want to reply from I Said Yes too. You can change this later.
5. Press Connect your mailbox. Google's own page opens: choose your account (or Use another account), then press Continue or Allow on what it asks. I Said Yes never sees your password.
6. You come back to I Said Yes and it starts bringing in the last 90 days of your Inbox and Sent. Emails with a couple appear on their wedding's Activity tab, matched by the email address saved on the wedding; anything else waits in Messages under Unfiled.

Outlook

1. Before you start: you need to be able to sign in to your Outlook email, and have your phone nearby in case Microsoft sends you a code. It takes about two minutes.
2. Go to Settings and, under Your mailbox, press Mailbox settings.
3. Under Which kind of mailbox is it?, choose Microsoft.
4. Under What should it be connected for?, choose Reading my mail, or Reading, and sending from here if you want to reply from I Said Yes too. You can change this later.
5. Press Connect your mailbox. Microsoft's own page opens: sign in and press Accept on what it asks. If it says your organisation must approve, whoever looks after your Microsoft 365 needs to allow it. I Said Yes never sees your password.
6. You come back to I Said Yes and it starts bringing in the last 90 days of your Inbox and Sent. Emails with a couple appear on their wedding's Activity tab, matched by the email address saved on the wedding; anything else waits in Messages under Unfiled.

IONOS

1. Before you start: have your email address and its password ready. With IONOS this is the password for the email address itself, the one you set under Email in your IONOS account, not the password you log in to IONOS with. If your email asks for an app password (some do when 2-step verification is on), make one in your email settings and use that instead.
2. Go to Settings and, under Your mailbox, press Mailbox settings.
3. Under Which kind of mailbox is it?, choose IONOS or another email host.
4. Under What should it be connected for?, choose Reading my mail, or Reading, and sending from here if you want to reply from I Said Yes too. You can change this later.
5. Press Connect your mailbox. A secure sign-in page opens: check the email address is your IONOS one, type its password and continue. If it asks for server settings, use incoming server imap.ionos.co.uk (port 993) and outgoing server smtp.ionos.co.uk (port 587), with your full email address as the username. I Said Yes never sees your password.
6. You come back to I Said Yes. With IONOS and other hosts the first emails can take up to an hour to appear, because your host copies them over first; the page updates itself, and you can carry on working. Emails with a couple then appear on their wedding's Activity tab, and anything else in Messages under Unfiled.

Another email host

1. Before you start: have your email address and its password ready. This is the password you use for that email address in your email app, not the one for your website or hosting account. If your email asks for an app password (some do when 2-step verification is on), make one in your email settings and use that instead.
2. Go to Settings and, under Your mailbox, press Mailbox settings.
3. Under Which kind of mailbox is it?, choose IONOS or another email host.
4. Under What should it be connected for?, choose Reading my mail, or Reading, and sending from here if you want to reply from I Said Yes too. You can change this later.
5. Press Connect your mailbox. A secure sign-in page opens: check the email address is your business one, type its password and continue. If it asks for server settings, type the ones your host gives for email apps such as Outlook or Apple Mail (an incoming IMAP server and an outgoing SMTP server); your host's help pages list them. I Said Yes never sees your password.
6. You come back to I Said Yes. With IONOS and other hosts the first emails can take up to an hour to appear, because your host copies them over first; the page updates itself, and you can carry on working. Emails with a couple then appear on their wedding's Activity tab, and anything else in Messages under Unfiled.

Which option do I choose?

• Gmail or Google Workspace: choose Google.
• Outlook, Hotmail, Microsoft 365, or GoDaddy email that comes with Microsoft 365: choose Microsoft.
• Anything else (IONOS, 123 Reg, GoDaddy Workspace Email, Namecheap, Hostinger, Zoho, iCloud, Yahoo, BT and so on): choose IONOS or another email host.

Not sure what your business email is? Look at how you read it on the web. If you sign in on a Google page (mail.google.com, or Gmail with your own address), it is Google Workspace, so choose Google. If you sign in at outlook.office.com or outlook.com, it is Microsoft 365, so choose Microsoft. Website builders such as Squarespace and Wix usually sell business email that is Google Workspace, and sometimes Microsoft 365, so the same test applies. If you read your email on your host's own webmail page, choose IONOS or another email host.

If it asks for server settings

Most hosts are found from your email address. If the sign-in page asks for server settings instead, find your host in this list. Use your full email address as the username each time, and the same password for incoming and outgoing. Outgoing (SMTP) settings are only needed if you chose to send from I Said Yes. If your host is not listed, look up its settings for email apps such as Outlook or Apple Mail, or ask its support team for the IMAP and SMTP server names.

• IONOS (UK): incoming (IMAP) imap.ionos.co.uk, port 993, SSL/TLS. Outgoing (SMTP) smtp.ionos.co.uk, port 587, STARTTLS (port 465 with SSL/TLS if 587 does not work). No extra step. Use the password for the email address, not your IONOS login.
• 123 Reg Professional Email: incoming imap.secureserver.net, port 993, SSL/TLS. Outgoing smtpout.secureserver.net, port 465, SSL/TLS (587 with STARTTLS also works). If you use 2-step verification, you may need an app password (see Making an app password).
• GoDaddy Workspace Email: incoming imap.secureserver.net, port 993, SSL. Outgoing smtpout.secureserver.net, port 465 (or 587), SSL. If your GoDaddy email shows only POP in its settings, that plan can't be connected. If your GoDaddy email is Microsoft 365, go back and choose Microsoft instead.
• Namecheap Private Email: incoming and outgoing both mail.privateemail.com. Incoming port 993 (SSL). Outgoing port 465 (SSL) or 587 (STARTTLS). Turn on authentication for the outgoing server and leave secure password authentication (SPA) off. Your normal password or an app password both work.
• Hostinger: incoming imap.hostinger.com, port 993, SSL. Outgoing smtp.hostinger.com, port 465, SSL (587 with STARTTLS if you see encryption errors). Your own settings are in Hostinger under Emails, then Manage next to your domain, then Connect Apps & Devices.
• Zoho Mail: first turn on IMAP. In Zoho Mail, go to Settings, then Mail Accounts, press your email address, tick IMAP Access and press Save. Business addresses on your own domain: incoming imappro.zoho.com, outgoing smtppro.zoho.com. Free and @zoho.com addresses: imap.zoho.com and smtp.zoho.com. Incoming port 993 (SSL); outgoing port 465 (SSL) or 587 (TLS). If you sign in to Zoho at zoho.eu, the names end in .eu instead of .com: check the exact names in Zoho Mail under Server Configuration Details. If you use 2-step verification you need an app password from Zoho.
• iCloud Mail: incoming imap.mail.me.com, port 993, SSL. Outgoing smtp.mail.me.com, port 587, STARTTLS. Incoming username: the part of your address before @icloud.com (the whole address if that fails). Outgoing username: your full address. You must use an app password, never your Apple password (see Making an app password).
• Yahoo Mail: incoming imap.mail.yahoo.com, port 993, SSL. Outgoing smtp.mail.yahoo.com, port 465 (or 587), SSL. Use an app password (see Making an app password).
• BT Email (btinternet.com or btopenworld.com): incoming and outgoing both mail.btinternet.com. Incoming port 993, SSL (not STARTTLS). Outgoing port 465, SSL (not STARTTLS), with authentication turned on. Use your BT email password, and leave secure password authentication (SPA) off. If you haven't used your email in an email app for a year, access can switch itself off: reset your BT email password to switch it back on.

Making an app password

Some hosts won't accept your normal password from another service. They give you a separate one-off password for it, called an app password. Make it first, then paste it where the sign-in page asks for your password.

• iCloud: go to account.apple.com and sign in. Open Sign-In and Security, then App-Specific Passwords, press the button to make a new one and follow the steps. Your Apple Account needs two-factor authentication switched on. Changing your Apple password later cancels every app password, so make a new one.
• Yahoo: sign in to your Yahoo account, open Account security, and under External connections press Create app password. Give it any name, such as I Said Yes, and press the button that makes the password. Copy it straight away, because it is only shown once.
• Zoho, 123 Reg and others: if you have 2-step verification on, look in your account's security settings for App passwords (the name can differ slightly) and make one there.

If it doesn't work

• It said it didn't connect: check you chose the right kind of mailbox and, for IONOS and other hosts, that you used the email password and not your account login. Then press Connect your mailbox again.
• Nothing has appeared yet: give it a few minutes for Gmail or Outlook and up to an hour for IONOS. Emails only appear on a wedding when the couple's email address is saved on it.
• It says it has paused, or needs connecting again: press Connect it again in Settings, under Your mailbox, and sign in once more. Everything already brought in stays.

You can disconnect at any time from the same page, and everything brought in is deleted. Your mailbox itself is never changed. Where your mail shows, and who can read it.