From Lady Gaga to Ivanka Trump: VIP guests at Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s controversial wedding in Venice
The festivities will begin on Thursday and conclude on Saturday. For security reasons, the ceremony will take place at a secret location.
Lauren Sanchez and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos arriving in Venice to get married.
Billionaire Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, is in Venice for his wedding to Latin-born journalist and businesswoman Lauren Sanchez. The event has sparked multiple protests across the popular tourist city.
Bezos and his bride-to-be were caught on camera by a dozen journalists covering the wedding of the year as they arrived at the luxury Aman Hotel on the Grand Canal, where a night’s stay costs over 10,000 euros.
The festivities will begin this Thursday and conclude on Saturday with a ceremony at a secret location for security reasons, according to several magazines.
VIP guests
According to the Italian press, Bezos (61) and Sanchez (55), both divorced, have reportedly booked all of the city’s most luxurious hotels to accommodate their prestigious guests—including Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey, Mick Jagger, Elton John, Orlando Bloom, and the Kardashians.
President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, arrived in Venice Tuesday afternoon with her husband, Jared Kushner, and their children, an AFP photographer reported.
Reports indicate that the wedding will include fewer than 200 guests, consisting of close friends, businesspeople, and celebrities like Eva Longoria and Katy Perry.
It was also reported that Bezos’ $500 million yacht, the Koru, will be anchored off the island of San Giorgio Maggiore—just across from the famous San Marco Square—which they rented for the duration of the festivities.
This lavish spending has sparked controversy in Venice, where many worry that the guests will make an already overcrowded city even less livable.
Details of the most expensive "I do" of the year
The exclusive invitation asks guests not to bring gifts for the billionaire couple. Instead, it lists three Venetian charities to which Bezos and Sanchez will make donations on behalf of their guests.
A source told People that the festivities will span several days, starting with a casual welcome evening this Thursday at an enclosed venue next to the Madonna dell’Orto church.
On Friday, June 27, the couple will tie the knot in a black-tie ceremony expected to take place on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, which the Giorgio Cini Foundation has transformed into an event space.
An exclusive source revealed that Matteo Bocelli, son of Andrea Bocelli, will perform during the ceremony.
The bride and groom will also surprise their guests with exclusive gifts, including expensive blown glassware costing nearly $300 per glass and limited-edition plates priced up to $1,200.
That’s not all—they’ll also gift velvet handbags from a Venetian luxury fabric company, valued at over $2,300 each.
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Protests: "Venice is not for sale"
On Monday, a group of Greenpeace activists unfurled a giant banner in San Marco Square showing a photo of Bezos laughing alongside the message, “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more taxes.”
The event, which has captured widespread attention, has also divided local residents.
Some are pleased that the billionaire chose the area for his wedding. However, others are outraged by the privatization of a fragile lagoon ecosystem, which is already threatened by excessive tourism and rising sea levels. The wedding has sparked controversy in Venice, where many fear the guests will make an already overcrowded city even less livable.
Around 100,000 people live in the city during the high season, alongside tens of thousands of daily visitors—many arriving on massive cruise ships—while the city’s resident population continues to decline.
Posters reading “No space for Bezos” have been plastered around the city in recent days. On Tuesday, a group of activists chanted, “Venice is not for sale.”
Simone Venturini, deputy for tourism at the Venetian city hall, told AFP that “the Bezos wedding has no logical connection to the issue of excessive tourism” and will have “no impact on the city.”
Built over centuries on islets in the lagoon, Venice recently introduced a controversial entrance fee for day visitors. However, many are calling for a more ambitious approach to address the city’s housing crisis, which is largely driven by tourist rentals.
Eleven years ago, George Clooney’s wedding caused no controversy in the lagoon. But Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, is more divisive—partly due to ongoing concerns over Amazon’s treatment of its employees.
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