Bespoke bash for a billionaire: Jeff Bezos weds Lauren Sánchez in lavish
Venice ceremony
[June 28, 2025]
By DAVID BILLER and PAOLO SANTALUCIA
VENICE, Italy (AP) — The sky itself is no limit for billionaire Jeff
Bezos and fiancée Lauren Sánchez, who have traveled into space — and
expectations were about as high ahead of their wedding in Venice on
Friday.
One of the world’s most enchanting cities as backdrop? Check.
Star-studded guestlist and tabloid buzz? Of course.
Local flavor? You bet.
And then, time to tie the knot. The couple held their wedding ceremony
Friday night, and Sánchez posted to Instagram a photo of herself beaming
in a white gown as she stood alongside a tuxedo-clad Bezos, the world's
fourth-richest man.
It was the second day of events spread across the Italian lagoon city,
which added complexity to what would have been a massive logistical
undertaking even on dry land.
Dozens of private jets had flocked to Venice’s airport, and yachts
pulled into the city’s famed waterways. Athletes, celebrities,
influencers and business leaders converged to revel in extravagance that
was as much a testament to the couple’s love as to their extraordinary
wealth.
The heady hoopla recalled the 2014 wedding in Venice of actor George
Clooney to human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin, when adoring crowds lined
the canals and hundreds of well-wishers gathered outside City Hall.
Not so for these nuptials, which became a lightning rod for small,
colorful protests. But any desire to dampen the prevailing fever pitch
hadn't materialized as of Friday. Instead, the glitterati were partying,
and the paparazzi jostling for glimpses of the gilded gala.
And the bride wore a classic mermaid-line gown, featuring Dolce &
Gabbana’s signature Italian lace. A traditional tulle-and-lace veil
completed her look.

"Not just a gown, a piece of poetry," she wrote on Instagram, where her
name now appears as Lauren Sánchez Bezos.
Logistics and costs
Venice is famed for its network of canals, where gondoliers croon for
lovestruck couples and even ambulances are aquatic. But water transport
of everything from bouquets to guests makes Venice among the world's
most challenging cities for a party, according to Jack Ezon, CEO of
Embark Beyond, a luxury travel advisory and destination event service.
“It’s a very tight-knit community; everyone there knows everyone, and
you need to work with the right people,” said Ezon, whose company has
put on a dozen high-end events in Venice. "There’s very tight control,
especially on movement there with boats.”
It at least triples the cost versus staging the same soiree in Rome or
Florence, he said.
Veneto Gov. Luca Zaia was first to give an estimated tally for the Bezos/Sánchez
bash: He told reporters this week the most recent total he saw was
between 40 million and 48 million euros (up to $56 million).
It’s an eye-popping, jaw-dropping figure that's over 1,000 times the
$36,000 average cost of American couples' weddings in 2025, according to
wedding planning website Zola’s annual report.
Bezos’ team has been tight-lipped about where these millions are going.
When the youngest son of Asia’s richest man married last July,
performances by pop stars Rihanna and Justin Bieber pushed up the price
tag.
“How do you spend $40 million on a three- or four-day event?” Ezon said.
”You could bring headliners, A-list performers, great DJs from anywhere
in the world. You could spend $2 million on an incredible glass tent
that’s only there for 10 hours, but it takes a month to build," or
expand the celebration to local landmarks.
There's no sign Sánchez and Bezos, the former CEO of Amazon, intend to
take over any of Venice’s tourist-thronged hotspots. Still, intense
hand-wringing about the prospect prompted their wedding coordinator,
Lanza & Baucina, to issue a rare statement calling those rumors false.
On Friday afternoon, Sánchez emerged from her hotel wearing a silk scarf
on her head and blew a kiss to journalists before stepping into her
water taxi. It carried her through the canals to San Giorgio island,
across the lagoon basin from St. Mark’s Square, where the couple held
their ceremony Friday night. Bezos followed two hours later.
Then, in a string of water taxis, came their illustrious guests — Oprah
Winfrey, Kim Kardashian, Ivanka Trump, Tom Brady, Bill Gates, Queen
Rania of Jordan, Leonardo DiCaprio, and more. Paparazzi trailed on their
own boats, trying to capture them all on camera.
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A police officer rides in front of the boat, center, carrying Lauren
Sanchez as it travels past St. Mark's Square ahead of the
anticipated wedding celebrations of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez,
in Venice, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Luigi Costantini)
 Vogue magazine, to which the couple
granted exclusive access, reported that the Dolce & Gabbana-designed
gown took 900 hours to complete. Inspired by Sophia Loren’s wedding
dress in the 1958 film Houseboat, it featured high-necked, hand-appliqued
lace and 180 silk chiffon-covered priest buttons.
‘No Space’
There are some who say these two shouldn't have been wed in this
city.
They characterize the wedding as a decadent display of wealth in a
world with growing inequality, and argue it's a shining example of
tourism taking precedence over residents’ needs, particularly
affordable housing and essential services. Venice is also one of the
cities most vulnerable to rising sea levels from climate change.
“Venice is not just a pretty picture, a pretty postcard to please
the needs and wants of the elite or of mass tourists, but it is an
alive city, made of people who want to actually live there," Stella
Faye, a researcher at a university from Venice, said on Friday.
About a dozen Venetian organizations — including housing advocates,
anti-cruise ship campaigners and university groups — are protesting
under the banner “No Space for Bezos,” a play on words referring to
his space exploration company Blue Origin and the bride’s recent
space flight.
Greenpeace unfurled a banner in St. Mark’s Square denouncing Bezos
for paying insufficient taxes. Activists floated a bald-headed Bezos-inspired
mannequin down Venice's Grand Canal atop an Amazon delivery box, its
hands clenching fake cash.
Authorities — from Venice's mayor to the nation’s tourism minister —
have dismissed the outcry, saying it ignores the visibility and
economic boost the wedding has brought.
“There will be photos everywhere, social media will go wild over the
bride’s dress, over the ceremony,” Italy’s tourism minister, Daniela
Santanchè, told the AP.
“All of this translates into a massive free publicity campaign. In
fact, because they will spend a lot of money, they will enrich
Venice — our shopkeepers, artisans, restaurateurs, hotels. So it’s a
great opportunity both for spending and for promoting Italy in the
world.”
Philanthropy
As Amazon’s CEO, Bezos usually avoided the limelight, frequently
delegating announcements and business updates to his executives.
Today he has a net worth of $234 billion, according to Forbes.
In 2019, he announced he was divorcing his first wife, MacKenzie
Scott, just before the National Enquirer published a story about an
affair with Sánchez, a former TV news anchor. Sánchez filed for
divorce the day after Bezos’ divorce was finalized.
He stepped down as CEO in 2021, saying he wished to spend more time
on side projects, including Blue Origin, The Washington Post, which
he owns, and his philanthropic initiatives.

Sitting beside Sánchez during an interview with CNN in 2022, he
announced plans to give away the majority of his wealth during his
lifetime.
Last week, a Venetian environmental research association issued a
statement saying Bezos’ Earth Fund was supporting its work with an
“important donation.” CORILA, which seeks protection of the Venetian
lagoon system, said contact began in April, well before any
protests.
Local media have reported a reception Saturday in the Arsenale, a
former navy base best known as a primary venue for the Venice
Biennale.
___
Biller reported from Rome. Associated Press writer Barbara Ortutay
in San Francisco contributed to this report.
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