March 20, 2015
Joey DiJulio/GoFundMe
After receiving an accidental invitation, Joey DiJulio will attend the bachelor party of a Philly man he's never met.
After a few weeks of receiving emails from people he didn't know about a bachelor party and a Philadelphia groom he's never met, a man from the Seattle suburbs finally decided to reveal his true identity. To his surprise, his presence is still wanted.
Joey DiJulio, an IT worker from Burien, Washington, received his first email invitation on Feb. 11 and quickly realized that he had been mistaken for a friend of the groom with a similar last name. From the schedule of festivities, he was able to piece together that the event would be occurring in Philadelphia, a place he has never been.
When the organizer of the bachelor party reached out to get a final headcount, DiJulio decided to speak up.
"I say everyone forks up an extra $20 and we get Joey a plane ticket to Philly!"
"So, I have no idea who any of you guys are, but I have been enjoying being a fly on the wall hearing about the plans for this bachelor party over the last few months," he wrote, according to a GoFundMe account he created Tuesday.
He wished the groom, Jeff Minetti, luck and told the rest of the email chain to enjoy the party. But it didn't end there.
DiJulio quickly started getting replies back from the group.
"I just facebooked Joey DiJulio in WA, and if this is you - you actually look like you could be related to groom. MIND BLOWN," one person wrote.
"I say everyone forks up an extra $20 and we get Joey a plane ticket to Philly!" another said.
Then the groom jumped in on the action, writing, "I'm overnighting you a wedding invite. You show up at the bachelor party and ill make you my best man. You can give the toast even."
DiJulio took to social media to share his story and raise money to cover his travel. In less than a week, he's already surpassed his initial goal of just over $1,200 and is putting any more money raised toward Minetti's honeymoon.
Thursday night, DiJulio posted an update to his fundraising account, thanking those who have supported his fund.
"It's going to be an amazing adventure for me, but what I really want to do now is start focusing in like a laser beam on the real story behind the craziness - and that story is about Jeff and his wife-to-be," he wrote.
"Having gotten to know Jeff (about as much as you can in 48-hours via a billion or so E-Mails, Texts, Facebook IMs, etc), he and his wife seem like the kind of people anyone would be blessed to be able to call friends. We've already been able to make this bachelor's party one heck of a night to remember, but let's continue this little experiment so we can make his honeymoon that much more memorable!"
Read the full trail of emails or donate to DiJulio's fund on his GoFundMe page.
