The vendor inbox and Gmail

Connecting Gmail

Any member can connect one Gmail account from the wedding's settings. The one you already have is fine: the connect dialog asks for the address before it sends you to Google, Gmail forwards what that inbox receives to Aisley, and she keeps only what is about the wedding. Every member sees which address is connected and who connected it, and anyone can disconnect it.

Aisley asks Google for one permission: to send email from that address. She never reads the inbox through Google. If Google signs the connection out, the inbox card and the compose dialog both say so and offer a reconnect that reruns the consent flow.

Sending from your Gmail

Every enquiry and reply goes out from the connected Gmail, in your name, and sits in that account's Sent folder like any other email. Vendors see your address, not ours, and answer it the way they would answer anyone.

How replies arrive

Replies reach Aisley because Gmail forwards them. The wedding has its own address on getaisley.com, shown on the settings page under Forward replies to Aisley. You copy it into Gmail's forwarding settings and choose Forward a copy of incoming mail. Google emails a confirmation to that address; Aisley completes it herself, and if Gmail asks you for a code, the card shows it.

Then press Send a test. Aisley emails your Gmail and waits for the forwarded copy to come back. When it does, the card says Forwarding works. If nothing has come back after ten minutes, forwarding is usually not switched on or not saved; check, then try again. You can rerun the test whenever you want to be sure.

Until the test passes, the compose dialog and the reply box carry one line saying replies won't reach Aisley yet. Sending still works.

A forwarded reply lands unread in the inbox with the quoted chain trimmed away, and the venue's status moves to in conversation. Aisley reads each reply for facts: a quoted price, availability on your date, concrete answers about minimums or viewings, and puts them where you will look, on the shortlist and in her notes. Hedged, ambiguous replies add nothing.

What Aisley reads, and never reads

Aisley keeps mail from addresses she has written to, or from the same company. A new sender joins your inbox as a vendor only when she can tell the email is about your wedding, so a newsletter or a note from your bank is discarded the moment it arrives. The card counts what was discarded.

Forwarding covers incoming mail only. An email you write to a vendor straight from Gmail never reaches Aisley, so reply from Aisley when you want the record to stay whole.

Aisley suggests

When a vendor's latest message is waiting on you, Aisley drafts your next reply in your voice: relating a quoted price to your budget, answering what she can, and leaving a visible placeholder where only you know the answer. Use draft fills the reply box for editing; Dismiss removes it for good. Aisley only sends when you tell her to, with the send button or in the chat.