Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s ‘Wedding of the Summer‘ has turned into a somewhat royal affair for the United States. And yet, their lavish nuptials and celebrations will take place in Venice, Italy, despite locals protesting against what they’re viewing as the Amazon leader renting the entire city and disrupting their ordinary lives.
Even with the official ceremony slated for Friday, their festivities will branch out as part of a multi-day extravaganza. Their A-list secret guests have also started landing for the destination wedding that has prompted Venetians to partake in the “No Space for Bezos” demonstrations. Locals have argued against their city being transformed into a “playground” for billionaires amid an already peak tourist season.
Where is the Jeff Bezos Lauren Sanchez wedding?
Though initially the historic Scuola Vecchia della Misericordia in central Venice was listed as one of their main wedding receptions’ venues, the anti-Bezos agenda flaring in the city led the billionaire tech titan to change the itinerary, according to Harper’s Bazaar.
Taking the venue switch into account, Bezos and Sanchez will now tie the knot on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Thanks to the Giorgio Cini Foundation, the location will get a wedding wonderland makeover. Jeff and Lauren will reportedly call the Italian island their own for six days – June 24 to June 20. As a result, the place will be cut off from public access during the ongoing celebrations.
Moving on from the nuptials, the US couple and their party guest will reportedly head off to Arsenal of Venice, a shipyard space on the city’s outskirts, for an extravagant dinner.
Venice swarming with multi-million yachts, hotel guests ‘booted’
Even as of now, the couple’s wedding guest list remains concealed like a mystery. However, certain pictured arrivals (Ivanka Trump) and the presence of a fleet of multi-million dollar megayachts moored along the coast signalled some high-profile names in attendance. One such $115 million yacht seen anchored along the Venice shore last week promised Michael Jordan’s appearance as well.
As the Bezos-Sanchez wedding is anyway expected to extend across luxury venues, Page Six also name-dropped prominent hotels like The Aman Venice and Hotel Cipriani as temporary abodes for the star-studded gathering. As per the American tabloid, the yet-to-be-married pair is staying at the former affluent establishment.
An insider also told the outlet, “Guests who had previously booked [at] the hotel for Wednesday night a long time in advance were booted once Bezos rented the entire space a few months ago.” Amid the switch-up, those guests in question have been moved to other hotels, including the St Regis. Aman, where rooms go for nearly $2,000 per night, “is paying for their rooms in addition to comping a night of their stay and offering upgrades.”
Venice protestors want Bezos to pay more taxes for the extravagant wedding
Given these developments, Venetian protestors demanded that the billionaire pay more taxes. Visuals coming in from the city indicated that the international environment group Greenpeace was behind a massive banner at St Mark’s Square that read: “If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax.”
The group even accused Bezos of underpaying his employees. “Jeff Bezos pays his staff poverty wages and dodges tax,” read an Instagram post. “No wonder he can afford to shut down half of Venice for his wedding this week. Tax billionaires NOW.”
Wedding planners defend them
On the contrary, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s wedding planners, Prince Antonio Licata di Baucina and Count Riccardo Lanza backed the couple, saying that their instruction entailed bringing city disruptions to a minimum.
“From the outset, instructions from our client and our own guiding principles were abundantly clear: the minimising of any disruption to the city, the respect for its residents and institutions and the overwhelming employment of locals in the crafting of the events,” Lanza & Baucina Limited issued a statement. They also asserted that the pair was not “taking over the city” by booking an “exaggerated quantity of water taxis or gondolas.”