 "Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez leave a hotel for their pre-wedding reception, in Venice, Italy. The three-day extravaganza comes with a price tag of “at least €40 million,” or around $46 million (Rs 400 crore). AP")
Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is all set to say ‘I do’ a second time — with his fiancée of several years, Lauren Sánchez in the magical city of Venice in Italy. The couple are set to tie the knot today (Friday, June 27) with celebrations expected to run until Saturday, June 28.
And this three-day event, replete with celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Kim Kardashian, security fit for kings, a foam party on a superyacht and a whole lot of luxury hotels is being dubbed as the ‘wedding of the century’. In fact, Lauren’s elder brother, Paul Sánchez, had earlier told TMZ, “I think it’s gonna be like a Princess Di thing,” referring to Princess Diana’s 1981 wedding to then Prince Charles.
But what’s the price tag for such an extravaganza? Luca Zaia, the governor of the Veneto region, of which Venice is part, has said that the Bezos-Sanchez affair will cost “at least €40 million,” or around $46 million (Rs 400 crore) — far surpassing the average $36,000 that US couples are expected to spend this year on their nuptials.
Bezos-Sanchez’s three-day wedding affair
The Amazon founder and his wife to-be, Lauren Sanchez , chose Venice for their OTT wedding affair with celebrations beginning on Thursday (June 26) with a casual welcome event next to the Gothic church of Madonna dell’Orto. It is one of Venice’s most important church complexes that houses the remains of Renaissance painter Tintoretto.
On Friday, the duo will recite their marital vows to one another at the San Giorgio Maggiore Basilica on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore. The island features manicured gardens, an outdoor ampitheatre, a private marina and the Gorge Cini Foundation.
A Wall Street Journal reports that acclaimed Italian singer Andre Bocelli’s son, Matteo, will perform at the nuptials.
And the wedding celebrations will continue for a third day with the reception in the Arsenale, a massive brick complex best known today as one of the main venues for the Biennale cultural festivals.
A-list celebs, luxury hotels, private jets and water taxis
But to make such a wedding come to life isn’t easy and or cheap. Massive logistics have to be put in place to ensure that this event plays out without any hitches and for that purpose.
Bezos and Sanchez have invited an estimated 250 guests, including several high-profile celebrities. While the entire guest list is still a secret, some were spotted on Thursday making their way on to water taxis. These include Kim Kardashian, her sisters and mother, Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and their three children, Oprah Winfrey, Orlando Bloom and former American footballer Tom Brady.
It is reported that Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Hollywood A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio is also expected to attend the nuptials.
And for these guests, Bezos and Sanchez have booked out five of the city’s most luxurious hotels. The hotels include Cipriani on the island of Giudecca, and the Aman on the Grand Canal where US actor George Clooney stayed for his 2014 wedding with human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin . According to travel website Kayak, the basic room at the Aman costs $2,736.
Moreover, to ferry these A-list guests and everything else required for the events, Bezos and Sanchez have hired 90 private jets and also booked at least 30 water taxis from different companies in Venice for the wedding guests.
Here comes the bride
Also contributing to the million-dollar price tag of the wedding is Lauren Sanchez’s wedding trousseau, including her dress, the flowers and her makeup. The Times of India has put down the cost to be $525,000 (Rs 4.48 crore).
And this doesn’t seem incredulous considering what Sanchez has already been pictured wearing for her wedding celebrations. She started it off with a 2003 Alexander McQueen dress with mother-of-pearl stripes. She followed that up with a Schiaparelli dress from their spring 2025 couture collection. The gold look, designed by Daniel Roseberry, features a corseted bodice covered in gold bugle beads as well as an off-the-shoulder neckline with hand-embroidered flowers. She accessorised the dress with diamond earrings as well as her multimillion-dollar engagement ring.
It is still to be seen which designer she chooses for her wedding but many are speculating that Sanchez is opting for a Dolce and Gabbana creation.
Donations and gifts
Besides spending for hotels, water taxis and other logistics, Bezos and Sanchez are also making sizeable charity donations, including €1 million (Rs 10 crore) for Corila, an academic consortium that studies Venice’s lagoon ecosystem, Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper and the ANSA news agency reported.
There are also reports that the A-list guests will receive extravagant gifts from the couple. It is reported that hand-blown Murano glass created by Laguna B, a Venetian glass company with a rich history, is to be given to the guests. Furthermore, other luxury items are also expected, though details remain confidential.
Over 1,000 times the cost of a US wedding
While Bezos and Sanchez are shelling out $46 million for their nuptials, a study shows that this is over 1,000 times the cost of an average US wedding. A study by Zola predicts that couples in America will spend roughly $36,000 (Rs 30.7 lakh) for a wedding, up from $31,000 (Rs 26.5 lakh) in 2024. The study also notes that more than 50 per cent of couples are expected to go over budget.
Brooke Avishay, the owner of Orange Blossom Special Events, was quoted as saying that the price of weddings in the US has been steadily rising for the past five years. “This surge is largely due to inflation and the aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic. When weddings were put on hold in 2020, the industry suffered, and many small, specialised businesses experienced staffing shortages. Once events resumed in 2021, the sudden, overwhelming demand — combined with limited vendor capacity — naturally drove up prices, a trend that has held steady into 2025.”
Wedding planners also point out that social media can skew one’s perception of what the “typical” wedding costs.
With inputs from agencies