Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s wedding has been dubbed the ‘Wedding of the Century.’MICHAEL TRAN/AFP/Getty Images
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez have invited scores of VIPs from film, finance and show business to Venice this week for three days of wedding celebrations.
Here are some facts and figures about what has been dubbed the “Wedding of the Century,” much of which has been kept secret, including details about the guest list and the exact cost of festivities.
A more than $63-million occasion
The wedding and its parts are expected to cost €40-48 million ($63.6- to $76.2-million), Luca Zaia, president of the Veneto regional government that comprises Venice, told reporters on Tuesday.
Bezos’s Venice wedding party moved to isolated area on security concerns
How expensive is Jeff’s wedding?
= $1,000
Median after-tax
household income
in Canada, 2022
$70,500
$1M
Bezos’s
estimated
wedding cost
$76M
= $1M
Bezos’s
estimated
net worth*
$309B
*As of June 26, in Canadian dollars.
MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE:
FORBES; STATISTICS CANADA
How expensive is Jeff’s wedding?
= $1,000
Median after-tax
household income
in Canada, 2022
$70,500
$1M
Bezos’s
estimated
wedding cost
$76M
= $1M
Bezos’s
estimated
net worth*
$309B
*As of June 26, in Canadian dollars.
MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE:
FORBES; STATISTICS CANADA
How expensive is Jeff’s wedding?
= $1,000
Median after-tax
household income
in Canada, 2022
$1M
$70,500
Bezos’s estimated
wedding cost
= $1M
$76M
Bezos’s estimated
net worth*
$309B
*As of June 26, in Canadian dollars.
MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: FORBES; STATISTICS CANADA
Bezos will make sizeable charity donations, including €1 million for Corila, an academic consortium that studies Venice’s lagoon ecosystem, Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper and the ANSA news agency reported on Sunday.
Venue
The day and the venue for the wedding ceremony itself are still confidential, but the main party is slated for Saturday at the Arsenale (the Arsenal), a historical site in the eastern part of the city.
This highly fortified area, surrounded by imposing walls, was used to build the Republic of Venice’s naval ships in its 15th-century heyday.
90 private jets, 30 water taxis
The first private jets arrived at Venice airport on Tuesday, and Zaia said around 90 will land at Venice and nearby airports such as Treviso and Verona over the next few days.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had been holidaying in Tuscany, arrived in Venice on Tuesday.
The organisers have also booked at least 30 water taxis from different companies in Venice for the wedding guests.
Five hotels for 250 guests
Five of the city’s most luxurious hotels have been booked out to host an expected 200-250 guests.
The hotels include Cipriani on the island of Giudecca, and the Aman on the Grand Canal where U.S. actor George Clooney stayed for his 2014 wedding with human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin.
Activists displayed a large anti-Jeff Bezos banner in Venice on Monday ahead of the billionaire's wedding to Lauren Sanchez.
Reuters