How Venice saw off rivals to host Jeff Bezos’s ‘wedding of the century’
The Amazon founder’s marriage to Lauren Sanchez will be a lavish affair, with at least 250 guests and bookings at four luxury hotels — but intrigue surrounds the exact location.
A leading fashion designer has played a role in persuading Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, to hold his wedding in Venice, local politicians have said.
Officials confirmed that Bezos had booked out at least four of the lagoon city’s luxury hotels and its fleet of water taxis to handle the 250 guests for his wedding to Lauren Sanchez.
“It’s going to be on par with a G7,” a Venice official said. Bezos, the world’s second richest person after Elon Musk, is expected to invite the philanthropist Bill Gates, the pop singer Katy Perry and Queen Rania of Jordan to the ceremony from June 24 to 26.
Rumours had circulated about other possible locations but Morris Ceron, director general of Venice council, told The Times that he had been in touch with the designer Domenico Dolce, of the Dolce & Gabbana fashion house. He said: “Dolce surely knew how to convey his own love for the city.”
Ceron had told the Venice newspaper Il Gazzettino: “Seven months ago Domenico Dolce told me Bezos was getting married. I got to work to bring this marriage of the century to Venice - that’s how it started.”
Luigi Brugnaro, the mayor of Venice, said Ceron’s lobbying had won the day. “We were in competition with other places but we won out,” he said.
Ceron said Bezos and Sanchez, a journalist, had chosen three venues for parties. They had their pick of locations to tie the knot after a decree permitted weddings in a range of historic buildings. Many suspect, however, the couple will exchange vows on his dollars 500 million yacht, the Koru.
They celebrated their engagement on the 127m-long, three-masted vessel in 2023 while it was anchored off Positano on the Amalfi coast.
A Venice official who declined to be named said, however, that they would have to change the rules again “if they want to wed on the yacht”.
He explained: “If it moors in the lagoon that explains why they booked every water taxi in the city, since they will need them to get guests out to the yacht.”
Journalists in Venice also suspect the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, opposite St Mark’s Square, could be a wedding location because it offers great privacy.
The island, which has a former monastery, is run by the Giorgio Cini cultural foundation, which made it available last year for an arts event hosted by Francois Pinault, the French tycoon.
A source at the foundation said, however, it had a policy of not hosting weddings. “It has to be cultural,” he said.
The actor George Clooney started the recent trend for glamorous Venice weddings in 2014 when he married Amal Alamuddin, the Lebanese-British lawyer, at the city’s town hall before being followed along the Grand Canal by boatloads of paparazzi.
Bezos’s wedding will be organised by Lanza & Baucina, the agency based in London that offers utter discretion.
A city official said: “Don’t bother asking them about the wedding. They have likely all signed non-disclosure agreements and won’t tell you anything.”
The Times
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