Guy Accidentally Gets Invite to Bachelor Party, Raises $8K to Crash It

Joey DiJulio is a fun guy with a can-do attitude. That’s why when he was invited to a stranger’s bachelor party by mistake, he didn’t just ask to be removed from the list (honestly, who would?) but read about the plans of the party with pleasure until he just couldn’t take it anymore and said “I want to gooooo!!!” Probably while ripping his shirt open and crying.

As someone who enjoys reading the emails of strangers — my partner has a common first initial/last name combo; last year he was accidentally added to a parent listserv for a first grade classroom and we had a great time reading all the sniping — I probably would not have taken the bold move of responding except to say that I should be removed from the list, but Joey DiJulio isn’t a lame-o like me. He wants to party in Philadelphia with strangers.

From Fox 17:

DiJuilo wrote, “I live out in Seattle, WA and although for a moment I thought it might be funny to just show up and be that guy nobody knows but everyone wonders “who is that guy?”, buying a plane ticket for a cross-country flight just to crash a bachelor’s party might be a bit over the top (although it would be epic!).”

DiJulio didn’t think anything more than few laughs would come from his email, but the groom, Jeff Minetti, surprised him by not only by extending a genuine invite, but telling DiJulio that he could be the best man if he actually came to the wedding. Kind of playing it fast and loose with wedding party responsibilities there, buddy, but it’s your wedding. I’m sure your brother/best friend will understand. Minetti’s friends even helped out by all shelling out some extra dough to get DiJulio to Philly so he could get drunk and play shuffleboard with them. Sounds like a good time.

And then something else happened: Emboldened by the support of his own Facebook friends (just a whole mess of likes, probably), DiJulio decided to start up a GoFundMe so he could get to the wedding (he raised the $1,000 needed) and also pay for some of Minetti’s honeymoon to Italy just for having him. As of right now, he’s raised over $8,000 of his $10,000 goal and at this moment is probably taking dancing lessons and pre-gaming for the wedding, which is this weekend.

On the one hand, this is a cute idea and I’m happy that everyone’s happy, but on the other I wonder about stories like this that go viral and involve giving strangers money for frivolous things that kind of sound like more than a headache than fun. Just yesterday I was shaking my head at a couple who wanted to travel the world, get married 38 times and do acrobatics via the funds and kindness of friends and strangers — but DiJulio’s plan has me feeling more amused than anything else. Could it be because he’s raising the money for an offer that was extended to him, as opposed to some self-indulgent creation of his own? Or is it just because he’s coming off as more personable? The world may never know the answer to that one, but here’s hoping DiJulio has an OK time. (I don’t want to oversell anyone on how fun weddings are supposed to be.)