(CNN) – Joey DiJulio is traveling across the country to attend a bachelor party for a guy he’s never met. In fact, he’s so committed to this, he’s even created a GoFundMe page to help him with expenses.
Why would DiJulio do this? Turns out, he was accidentally invited via email!
On his crowdfunding site, DiJulio says that he received an email invitation to a bachelor party for Jeff Minetti, a name he didn’t recognize. DiJulio lives in Seattle and the party is set in Philadelphia, a part of the country he’s never been to. The email was sent to a large group of people and DiJulio assumes his name was added by mistake.
After being a “fly on the wall” for a few weeks, DiJulio finally replied all, explaining he likely wasn’t the intended recipient of the invitation.
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!).”
To his surprise, the groom-to-be and his friends “officially” invited him to join them.
“I’m overnighting you a wedding invite. You show up at the bachelor party and I’ll make you my best man,” Minetti wrote to DiJulio.
Minetti’s friends replied with “I say everyone forks up an extra $20 and we get Joey a plane ticket to Philly!” and “I call Joey DiJulio as my shuffle board partner.”
DiJulio was shocked. He asked his Facebook friends if he should go and says the overwhelming majority of them were supportive — so he’s calculated the costs of the entire trip and asked random strangers to help him fund it.
As of Thursday afternoon, DiJulio has already raised $1,740 toward his goal of $10,000. He upped his goal after just one day because he wants to put the extra donations toward the couple’s honeymoon in Italy.
In an update on his GoFundMe page, DiJulio said he’s booked his ticket to Philly and that he’s ready for a weekend of festivities, which begins March 28.
“For those of you that have already donated, thank you again. Please continue to share this with family and friends so they too can consider donating as well,” DiJulio writes. “Let’s dream big!”
