If you guys want to play together, you might consider setting up a 3v3 or 4v4 with friends slots for your friends and then letting other players from the Lobby fill the other slots. It seems like it might be easier to do that then to try to coordinate a playing time with 6 or 8 people.
Do note that if you intend to play online multiplayer a lot you guys will want to get Entrenchment since that's where most of the action is nowadays, including the 4v4's and 5v5's.
