Mistaken bachelor party invitee trying to pay for strangers’ honeymoon

It all started with a misdirected email and now a Burien man is raising funds to send a couple he’s never met on a honeymoon.

Joey DiJulio told KIRO Radio’s Ron & Don Show that he became a part of this couple’s wedding story after he received an email about an upcoming bachelor party back in February.

“I got this email and it says it’s for a bachelor party and it’s for a guy named Jeff,” DiJulio said. “I start reading through it thinking, ‘OK I know a few Jeffs and the more I read, the more I’m like, I don’t know this Jeff.”

Finding the back and forth between all the buddies and groomsmen pretty entertaining, DiJulio said he just decided to keep quiet on the email chain.

“I’ve seen these emails before. I’ve been on some legitimately in the past and I know they go on forever. It’s like a modern day version of the gladiators, people are trying to figure out exactly whose idea is going to win and they fight to the death and everything else,” DiJulio said. “So I figured, you know, I’ll just be a fly on the wall and kind of laugh in the background as they go back and forth through these. So that’s why I didn’t say anything right up front.”

But friends and family that heard about DiJulio’s random invite started joking with him that he should crash the party once the plans were finalized. Only thing was, the party was in Philadelphia. With all it would take to get a ticket, lodging, and everything else, he thought that was probably out of the question.

“But as of Monday [last week] there’s another email that came out where I think it was one of the groom’s brothers was trying to solidify the headcount,” DiJulio said. “He’s like here’s the list of email addresses I haven’t heard from, and I was one of them, so that’s when I decided if I’m going to say anything, I might as well do it now.”

DiJulio decided to send the following email to the group:

Hi All,

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.

I’m assuming my E-Mail address was added to the list by mistake (perhaps a typo of someone else?).

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!).

Nonetheless, I do hope you guys have a great time and I’d like to take a moment to wish the best of luck in life to the groom!

Cheers!

Joey DiJulio
Seattle, WA

DiJulio expected the guys to respond saying sorry you weren’t meant to be on the list, thanks for the email, have a nice day, but instead a number of them wanted him to come out, and they were willing to help, even offering to chip in for a plane ticket.

DiJulio’s friends suggested he set up a gofundme page to see if people would support his trip east.

“So that’s what I did,” DiJulio told Ron & Don. “I put it together. I kind of documented on there, put up little excerpts from the original emails of how it all came to be, and I just put it on Facebook and people shared it.”

“Within 20 hours, the cost that I had kind of calculated as to what it was going to cost to get a plane ticket and a hotel and all that, that was fully funded.”

There was still money coming in, so DiJulio began thinking of how he might use the excess. He decided maybe he could do something nice for the bride and groom.

“What I want to do now, in what I call phase two, is to say OK I’m funded to get out there and back, but let’s take this from a funny story to something that can really make an impact for Jeff and his new wife,” DiJulio said. “So my goal, I bumped it up to $10,000 – go big or go home, right? – and I want to see if I can help pay for their honeymoon. They’re headed out to Italy, and so that is really what I’m focusing on right now.”

The plan seems to be working. As of now, DiJulio has raised over $7,700. If you’d like to make a contribution visit the gofundme page.