Here's How Much The Bezos-Sánchez Wedding Extravaganza Really Cost

Forbes

4 hours ago

L ove is lavish-er the second time around. Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez are celebrating their nuptials in a star-studded, and controversial, three-day celebration in Venice—and most of the focus has been on how much the affair cost.
More than six months ago, rumors started circulating that the Bezos-Sánchez wedding (the second time each has said, 'I do.') would be held in Aspen and cost $600 million.
'Unless you are buying each of your guests a house, you can't spend this much money,' hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman joked on X in December. Bezos himself reposted the comment, stating 'this whole thing is completely false—none of this is happening.'
Instead, the happy couple opted for what is reportedly an 'intimate' 200-person ceremony presumed to be much less expensive than the rumored Rocky Mountain hijinks. And that doesn't include a pre-wedding foam party the 61-year-old groom and 55-year-old bride reportedly threw for one of her son's last weekend aboard Bezos' superyacht, Koru .
Based on conversations with a dozen sources, including Venetian wedding industry insiders and multiple local vendors involved in or with knowledge of the event, Forbes estimates that the Bezos-Sánchez wedding will cost at least $20 million - but could be closer to $25 million or even more, depending on what surprises the hosts have in store for their guests. (A representative for Bezos has not yet replied to a request for comment.)
This week, a handful of media outlets cited Luca Zaia, president of the Veneto region (which includes Venice), saying that the wedding would cost upwards of 40 million euros, or $46 million. But that number looks like a wild guess. A member of Zaia's press office says that Zaia was using 'online sources' and does not have any insider information from the Amazon cofounder or his representatives. Another number that's been cited is the wedding's economic impact on the Queen of the Adriatic. According to Italy's Ministry of Tourism, the wedding could generate an economic impact of more than $1 billion, equivalent to some two-thirds of the city's annual tourism number. How that is calculated is unclear, but there is no doubt officials are hoping for a boost after a nearly 7% decline in overnight stays so far in 2025.
The $20-plus million Forbes estimates for the celebration, based on confirmed costs, is more than 600 times the cost of an average American wedding—which the wedding site The Knot puts at $33,000 or about $284 a guest—but won't exactly make a dent in Bezos' estimated $237 billion fortune.
Bezos and Sánchez's multi-day affair kicked off with a welcome party held near the Madonna dell'Orto church on Thursday night; it was reportedly cut short due to a thunder storm. The actual ceremony was held at the 16th century San Giorgio Maggiore Basilica on one of Venice's islands on Friday night, though the couple don't appear to be getting legally married—they never applied for the necessary license from the city, suggesting they may have wed ahead of the very public celebration.
Matteo Bocelli, son of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, reportedly performed at the ceremony, followed by a reception on the island. On Saturday, another party is planned at Arsenale, a massive complex of former armories and shipyards first built in the 12th century. The party was supposed to be held at the Scuola Grande Della Misericordia, in the center of Venice, but was moved on Tuesday for security concerns—a last-minute inconvenience that likely added significantly to the weekend's costs.
The couple's A-plus guest list—which ranged from billionaires Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey to Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Brady, as well as a vaporetto-load of the requisite Kardashians—have been spotted at five-star hotels across Venice in recent days, including at the Gritti Palace, the St. Regis and the Aman, where the bride and groom are staying. (The couple reportedly bought out the entire hotel for the three nights, which required relocating guests who had coincidentally booked the Aman to other luxury properties in the city at the Bezos' expense.) The average cost of a room at the luxury hotels in June, based on the rack rate on several hotel sites, is about $2,000 per night. That adds up to some $900,000 for three nights, assuming around 150 rooms were booked. It's not clear whether the couple are paying for guests' rooms, but two wedding planners say it's standard for ultra-luxe events like this.
Billionaire Sam Altman, the CEO of Chat GPT maker OpenAI, is one of a handful of billionaire guests at the Bezos-Sanchez wedding. MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images
The couple's wedding planners also commissioned about 30 private water taxis to escort guests around the city, according to a source in Venice. Each taxi costs between $210 and $290 per hour, according to the Venice consortium of water taxis, the largest in the city. All told, assuming 12-hour days, the cost would be at least $270,000 spent on water transport alone.
The wedding was catered by three-Michelin-star chef Fabrizio Mellino of Quattro Passi, a restaurant in Nerano—near Naples–which Bezos has been known to frequent, according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra. The restaurant charges around $1,800 per person, including staff and food transport, to cater weddings of this level, according to former clients. That's at least $360,000 in food-and-beverage costs for the one night—but it is likely a three-day contract, adding up closer to $1.1 million. Quattro Passi is reportedly closed for four days.
The floral arrangements were provided by Munaretto Flowers, according to a source within Venice's luxury wedding planning industry, who estimates the cost to be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Munaretto did not reply to a request for comment.
In addition, the couple is giving each guest an arrangement of local goods and pastries, including hand-blown Murano glass from Laguna B–a Venice luxury staple, and fresh-baked treats from Rosa Salva, one of the oldest bakeries in the city. A simple Murano wine goblet starts at around $220, making the estimated cost per box hundreds of dollars.
Antonio Rosa Salva, owner of the Rosa Salva bakery, was commissioned to produce 'about 200' small assortments of the bakery's products, which is known for its typical Venetian cookies, including buranelli and zaleti . Rosa Salva tells Forbes the level of secrecy surrounding the nuptials has been such that he himself didn't know the order was intended for Bezos until two weeks ago, and that it was placed through a third-party agency. "We make our product with love,' he says. 'The real satisfaction comes from receiving recognition in that regard—from a financial standpoint as well, but it's much more important to be recognized for the quality.'
The island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, where the ceremony between Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez was held on Friday, June 27. STEFANO RELLANDINI/AFP via Getty Images
Given the number of high-profile and ultra-wealthy guests, security has been paramount all week. 'The security posture there must be massive,' says Kenneth Bombace, CEO of Global Threat Solutions, who has provided private security for multiple events that Bezos attended in the past. Bombace says that for an event of this caliber, he would have hired 40 to 50 agents, including members of the local police force, and would have begun preparations months in advance. Bombace estimates the total security cost for the event, including travel and preparations, at 'a few million dollars.'
A source with knowledge of the events confirmed that at least 30 members of the Italian police have surveyed the island of San Giorgio Maggiore with a canine unit and other security forces have swept the hotels.
To spread good will in Venice—which has not exactly returned the kindness to the couple, including dumping a dummy of the groom clinging to an Amazon delivery box in the canal—Bezos has donated nearly $3.6 million to three organizations in the city: $1.2 million (or 1 million Euro) to Corila, an agency that coordinates research for the care of the Venetian lagoon; $1.2 million to UNESCO's Venice office, which promotes culture and the natural sciences; and an estimated $1.2 million to Venice International University.
'They did a blood test and an X-ray on us,' joked Pierpaolo Campostrini, general director of Corila, who says he was pleasantly surprised to receive the donation. Bezos had been struck by the beauty of Venice's lagoon during a previous visit and asked about its management, he tells Forbes . 'We didn't fill out an application or do anything of the kind.'
Campostrini says he was first contacted by representatives for Bezos in April, before protests denouncing the lavishness of the event picked up, adding, 'It wasn't greenwashing.'
A spokesperson for UNESCO Venice confirmed the group plans to use the funds to 'support UNESCO's activities in managing and preserving the cultural heritage of Venice and its lagoon.' A representative of Venice International University did not respond to a request for comment.
Despite the media frenzy and lavish details, the weekend extravaganza is hardly the most expensive recent wedding among the billionaire set. In 2004, Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, then the country's second richest person, sprang for an opulent six-day wedding celebration in Paris for his daughter Vanisha. Mittal spared no expense on the nuptials, flying 1,000 guests by private jets to France, where festivities included fireworks at the Eiffel Tower, a performance by Kylie Minogue and an engagement ceremony at the Palace of Versailles. The estimated tab for the week was around $60 million.
That amount was modest compared to the 2024 marriage celebration of Anant Ambani, the son of India's richest person, Mukesh Ambani. Believed to be the most expensive of all-time—costing between $400 million and $500 million—it included multiple events stretching over several months, including a Mediterranean cruise and performances by Rihanna and Justin Bieber. One event alone had more than 10,000 guests.
Not all billionaires or their heirs want such spectacles when they walk down the aisle. Alex Soros, son of hedge fund billionaire George Soros, recently tied the knot with Huma Abedin, a longtime advisor to Hillary Clinton, at a private ceremony 'at home' in their Water Mill, New York mansion. Still even a low-key billionaire wedding brings out a roster of A-list guests, this one including everyone from Clinton and Kamala Harris to Jennifer Lawrence and Mariska Hargitay. Plus there was a performance by Boyz 2 Men, a band well past their heyday and with a price tag that could have been as little as a few hundred thousand. Bezos and Sánchez are reportedly going for much bigger pop stars for their Saturday bash-–Lady Gaga and Elton John, according to several media outlets. And if those two don't show, Usher and Elie Goulding have already joined the Venetian party.
The joy rushing through the canals has been palpable. From Bezos and Sánchez waving at crowds to the new bride already posting a glamorous photo of her in a Sophia Loren-inspired Dolce & Gabbana gown and changing her name to Lauren Sánchez Bezos on Instagram, there is no doubt they want to shout the news from the gondolas. Here's hoping it lasts longer than the marriage of Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie Scott and her second husband, who divorced after less than two years — and that in this case, the second time is really the charm.
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