According to reports, the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and former journalist Lauren Sánchez will marry next week in what is expected to be an opulent ceremony, to be held in Venice, Italy, which will cost millions of dollars and will remain largely in secret.
Key data
Many of the details reported on the wedding are speculative, although the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, confirmed that the event will take place in the floating city, and told the Italian newspaper Corriere della, it will be that the wedding “will have economic repercussions of millions of euros for our city.”
The wedding will be a “several days celebration,” according to The Wall Street Journal, noting that the wedding cost will reach millions.
Forbes has contacted Bezos to request comments.
Where will the wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez be held?
According to the Journal, Bezos and Sánchez will marry on a Venetian island. The geography of the small city extends for more than 110 islets, and the historic center occupies approximately two square miles. However, a Brugnaro spokesman told CNN in March that the wedding will take place at the bezos of $ 500 million, known as Koru. The Koru is a 417 feet sailboat, the second largest of its kind in the world, which means that it would have to be anchored away from the Grand Canal of Venice due to its size. On the contrary, “No Space for Bezos”, a local group that protests the event, has said that the wedding will take place in the historic Church of the Abbey of Mercy, according to the BBC.
Who protests against the wedding and why?
Some locals in Venice, who have dealt with excessive tourism that has overloaded the infrastructure and services of the city for years, will protest the wedding due to the concern that their scale worsens some of the problems created by excessive tourist crowds. Activists have organized a “No Space For Bezos” campaign opposing the wedding, placing banners and stickers throughout the city. Federica Toninelli, a Venetian activist with “No Space for Bezos,” told Reuters that the wedding is also a “symbol of the city’s exploitation by outsiders.” The protesters have threatened to block access to the channels and the streets of the city in an effort to prevent wedding attendees from reaching the places of the party in the city, according to Variety. Oliviero Cassarà, a main organizer and activist, said in a statement that “no Space for Bezos” has no problem with Americans or people who marry Venice, and instead criticize Bezos for his links with Trump and criticizes the controversial commercial policies of the president. “Bezos supported Trump economically and politically and, therefore, is responsible for this drift against us, Italian and European citizens,” said Cassarà. Brugnaro has spoken against protesters and tried to assure them that the city is able to manage the event, citing its headquarters of the Venice Film Festival and the G7 summit. Brugnaro said he was “ashamed of those who behave like this,” Variety reported. The organizers of the protest have criticized Brugnaro, insisting that the demonstrations will be peaceful.
How many people will attend the wedding and who will be on the guest list?
Venice officials have said that the guest list for Bezos and Sánchez wedding is limited to 200 people. It is not known with certainty who will attend the wedding, but TMZ reported that a handful of celebrities received invitations, including Eva Longoria, Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian and Jewel Kilcher, and pointed out that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, in addition to Karlie Kloss and her husband Joshua Kushner were also on the list. Mick Jagger, Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Gayle King could also attend, according to The New York Times. Many people on the alleged list, such as Longoria and Perry, are friends with Bezos and/or Sánchez. The guests who attended Sánchez’s bachelorette party in Paris in May included Jenner, Kardashian, Perry, Longoria, businesswoman Elsa Marie Collins, the Philantral Natasha Poonowalla and the Fox Sports Charissa Thompson’s presenter.
When is the wedding?
The wedding will take place from June 24 to 26, CNN reported, citing Brugnaro spokesman, although some reports have affirmed a celebration from June 26 to 29.
How much will the wedding cost?
Several reports indicate that the wedding will foreseeably cost millions of dollars. The Journal reported that a luxury wedding with 200 guests, such as Bezos, costs about 4 million dollars, citing Jamie Simon, event director of the Luxury Planning Firm Banana Split, who organized the wedding of several days between Sofia Richie Graininge and the executive director of Atlantic Records, Elliot Graininge, in 2023.
Who organizes the Bezos-Sánchez wedding?
The Journal reported that Lanza & Baucina, the London group that organized the wedding of George and Amal Clooney in Venice in 2014, was hired by Bezos and Sánchez. A group representative declared the Journal that his principles and instructions of Bezos demand “minimizing any disturbance to the city, respecting their residents and institutions and using most local residents in organization of events.”
Forbes assessment
We estimate Bezos’ Net Heritage in 225 billion dollars from Friday, which makes it the fourth richest person in the world behind Mark Zuckerberg (236.5 billion dollars), Larry Ellison (251.9 billion dollars) and Elon Musk (407.4 billion dollars).
Key history
Bezos and Sánchez met almost ten years ago and began to appear together in public around 2019, when they began to leave. They committed themselves in 2023 aboard the Superyate Koru, and Bezos gave Sánchez a 30 carat cushion pink diamond in platinum, according to Vanity Fair. The next wedding of the couple in Venice is not unpublished, since the floating city also housed the wedding of George and Amal Clooney in 2014, when they married in the City of Venice. The wedding had a generally positive perception, and the locals praised Clooney for their consideration and respect for Venice. Cassá even compared Bezos with Clooney in his statement, stating that Bezos “is not George Clooney with his romantic aura.”
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
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