Bespoke Bash for a billionaire: Jeff Bezos Weds Lauren Snchez in the luxurious Venice ceremony

Venice, Italy (AP) – Heaven itself is not a limit to billionaire Jeff Bezos and the fiancee Lauren Sánchez, who have traveled to space, and expectations were so high before their wedding in Venice on Friday.

And then, it’s time to tie the knot. The couple celebrated their wedding ceremony on Friday night, and Sánchez posted on Instagram a radiant photo with a white dress while standing next to a bezos dressed in tuxedo, the fourth richest man in the world.

It was the second day of events extended by the city of the Italian lagoon, which added complexity to what would have been a mass logistics even in dry land.

Dozens of private planes had come to Venice airport, and the yachts entered the famous river routes of the city. Athletes, celebrities, influencers and business leaders converged to delight with extravagance that was both a testimony of the couple’s love and their extraordinary wealth.

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The drunken Houpla recalled the 2014 wedding in Venice of actor George Clooney to the Amal Alamuddin human rights lawyer, when the crowds worshiped the channels and hundreds of supporters gathered outside the City Council.

It is not so for these nuptials, which became a lightning rod for small and colorful protests. But any desire to cushion the predominant high point had not materialized as of Friday. Instead, the Glitterati were partying, and the paparazzi were pushing for gloves of the golden gala.

And the bride wore a classic siren line dress, with the distinctive Italian lace of Dolce & Gabbana. A traditional veil of Tul and Lace completed its look.

“Not only a dress, a piece of poetry,” he wrote on Instagram, where his name now appears as Lauren Sánchez Bezos.

Logistics and costs

Venice is famous for its network of channels, where Gondoliers sing for loved couples and even ambulances are aquatic. But the transport of water from everything, from Bouquets to guests, makes Venice among the most challenging cities in the world for a party, according to Jack Ezon, CEO of Eck Beyond, a luxury travel advice service and a destination events service.

“It is a very united community; everyone there knows everyone, and you need to work with the right people,” said Ezon, whose company has made a dozen high -end events in Venice. “There is a very tight control, especially in the movement there with ships.”

At least triples the cost versus organizing the same evening in Rome or Florence, he said.

The governor of Veneto, Luca Zaia, was the first to give an estimated account for the Bezos/Sánchez party: he told reporters this week that the most recent total he saw was between 40 million and 48 million euros (up to $ 56 million).

It is a surprising and amazing figure that exceeds 1,000 times the average cost of $ 36,000 of the weddings of US couples in 2025, according to the annual report of the Zola wedding planning website.

Bezos’s team has had a tight lip where these millions are going. When Asia’s richest son married last July, the performances of the Pop stars Rihanna and Justin Bieber uploaded the price.

“How do you spend $ 40 million in an event of three or four days?” Ezon said. “They could bring poster heads, artists from list A, excellent DJs anywhere in the world. You could spend $ 2 million on an incredible glass tent that is only there for 10 hours, but it has been building for a month” or expanding the celebration to local reference points.

There are no signs of Sánchez and Bezos, the former CEO of Amazon, intends to take care of any of Venice’s critical tourist points. Even so, the intense twisting of the hands on the perspective caused its wedding coordinator, Lanza & Baucina, to issue a rare statement that calls those false rumors.

On Friday afternoon, Sánchez left his hotel with a silk scarf on his head and flew a kiss to journalists before entering his aquatic taxi. He took it through the channels to the island of San Giorgio, through the La Laguna basin from the Plaza de San Marcos, where the couple celebrated their ceremony on Friday night. Bezos continued two hours later.

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Then, in a series of water taxis, their illustrious guests arrived: Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian, Ivanka Trump, Tom Brady, Bill Gates, Queen Rania de Jordan, Leonardo DiCaprio and more. The paparazzi followed their own ships, trying to capture them all in the camera.

Vogue magazine, to which the couple gave exclusive access, reported that the dress designed by Dolce & Gabbana took 900 hours to complete. Inspired by Sophia Loren’s wedding dress in the floating house of the 1958 film, she presented high -neck lace and 180 priest buttons covered with silk gauze.

‘There is no space’

There are some who say that these two should not have married in this city.

They characterize the wedding as a decadent exhibition of wealth in a world with a growing inequality, and argue that it is a brilliant example of tourism that has priority over the needs of residents, particularly affordable housing and essential services. Venice is also one of the most vulnerable cities to the increase in sea level due to climate change.

“Venice is not just a beautiful image, a beautiful postcard to please the needs and desires of the elite or mass tourists, but is a living city, made of people who really want to live there,” Stella Faye, a researcher at a University of Venice, said on Friday.

Around a dozen Venetian organizations, including housing defenders, anti-crusic activists and university groups, protest under the banner “There is no space for Bezos”, a work of words that refers to their Blue Origin space exploration company and the recent space flight of the bride.

Greenpeace deployed a banner in the Plaza de San Marcos denouncing Bezos for paying insufficient taxes. The activists floated a mannequin inspired by bald head bezos by the large Venice channel on a Amazon delivery box, their hands squeezed false effective.

Stefano Rellandini through Getty Images

The authorities, from the mayor of Venice to the Minister of Tourism of the Nation, have dismissed the protest, saying that he ignores the visibility and economic impulse that the wedding has brought.

“There will be photos everywhere, social networks will go crazy for the bride’s dress, about the ceremony,” the Minister of Tourism of Italy, Daniela Santchè, told the AP.

“All this translates into a massive free advertising campaign. In fact, because they will spend a lot of money, they will enrich Venice, our merchants, artisans, restorers, hotels. Therefore, it is a great opportunity both to spend and to promote Italy in the world.”

Philanthropy

As Amazon CEO, Bezos generally avoided the center of attention, frequently delegating commercial ads and updates to its executives. Today it has a net assets of $ 234 billion, according to Forbes.

In 2019, he announced that he was divorcing his first wife, Mackenzie Scott, just before the National Enquirer published a story about an adventure with Sánchez, a former television news presenter. Sanchez requested divorce on the day after the divorce of Bezos was finished.

He resigned as CEO in 2021, saying that he wanted to spend more time in parallel projects, including Blue Origin, The Washington Post, which he owns and his philanthropic initiatives.

Sitting with Sánchez during an interview with CNN in 2022, he announced plans to give most of his wealth during his life.

Last week, a Venetian environmental research association issued a statement by saying that the Fund of the Earth of Bezos was supporting its work with an “important donation.” Corila, who seeks the protection of the Venetian lagoon system, said the contact began in April, long before the protests.

Local media reported a reception on Saturday in Arsenale, a former base of the Navy better known as a main place for the Venice Biennale.

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Biller reported from Rome. The News writer, Barbara Ortutay, in San Francisco, contributed to this report.