Bezos Venice wedding: Sanchez felt like a ‘princess’, sharing first images of dress from lavish wedding

Lauren Sanchez has shared the first look at her stunning wedding dress from her and Jeff Bezos’ $20 million Venetian wedding, surrounded by their glamorous celebrity friends.

The bride, 55, took to Instagram moments after saying ‘I do’ to post a photo of herself and her new husband, showing off her elegant Dolce & Gabbana gown.

Described as the “wedding of a century,” the 61-year-old Amazon founder and former journalist welcomed nearly 200 VIPs to Venice for three days of lavish celebrations. Oprah Winfrey, Ivanka Trump, and Usher were among the stars who travelled by water to the private island for the romantic nuptials.

A-listers Kim Kardashian and Orlando Bloom also arrived in Italy earlier this week for the festivities, which come two years after Bezos proposed to Sanchez on his $500 million superyacht.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez left their luxury hotel on Venice’s Grand Canal to head to their wedding ceremony, the centrepiece of a three-day gala featuring dozens of stars but also protests by local activists.

Sanchez, wearing shades and a head scarf, was seen waving and blowing kisses to onlookers as she boarded a sleek motor boat outside the Aman hotel, protecting herself from the blistering summer sun. Bezos followed about two hours later, making the same short trip across the lagoon to the small island of San Giorgio, where the couple exchanged rings accompanied by singing from Matteo Bocelli, son of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.

The evening ceremony reportedly had no legal status under Italian law, with a senior city hall official telling Reuters the couple may have already legally wed in the United States to avoid Italian bureaucracy.

The festivities, estimated to cost up to $77 million, culminated with a party in a former medieval shipyard where Lady Gaga and Elton John were reportedly set to perform. Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Brady, the queen of Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner, Kim and Khloe Kardashian, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and Domenico Dolce from Dolce & Gabbana were among the 200-250 guests.

Amid tight security, there were glimpses of celebrities moving around Venice, the women in summer dresses and high heels stepping gingerly off boats ferrying them through the city’s canals.

Celebrations began on Thursday evening in the cloisters of Madonna dell’Orto, a medieval church in Cannaregio that hosts masterpieces by 16th-century painter Tintoretto.

Their wedding invitation described Venice as a “magical place” that had “gifted us unforgettable memories.” The couple asked for “no gifts” and pledged €3 million ($5.4 million) in donations to three Venetian institutions.

But the glitz was met with local protests. Members of the “No Space for Bezos” movement staged a demonstration in St Mark’s Square, chanting “We are the 99 per cent” as a masked couple posed as bride and groom and a banner reading “The 1 per cent ruins the world” was unfurled. Police intervened to remove protesters, and the anti-Bezos front planned a march for Saturday, prompting authorities to step up security and relocate the closing party to the Arsenale, a more secluded former shipyard.

Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro welcomed the couple, saying, “We are happy and honoured to welcome Jeff Bezos and his consort Lauren Sanchez.”

Australian tourist Charlotte Perkins said she understood local resentment at Venice being treated as a celebrity playground: “I’d probably feel the same if I lived here,” she said.

Bezos, No.4 on Forbes’ global billionaires list, got engaged to Sanchez in 2023, four years after his divorce from MacKenzie Scott.

While chatting with Vogue, Lauren recalled feeling like a “princess” during her dress fitting in Milan, Italy. “It was more powerful than I thought,” she said of the moment she tried on the glamorous Dolce & Gabbana gown for the first time.

She also revealed that Jeff had begged to see her in the dress, but as is tradition, she kept it a surprise until the wedding day. “I almost gave in,” she admitted. “But I want it to be a surprise. As you get a little older, not many things surprise you. I can’t wait to see his face.”

Newly-married Lauren Sanchez Bezos also graced the cover of Vogue in her elegant wedding gown.