The nuptials of Amazon titan Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sánchez have officially begun, which means we need an extensive analysis of just how much money is being spent on the wedding extravaganza. And how many celebrities will be in attendance.

The couple have been dating since January 2019, and got engaged in May 2023. We’ve already seen a foam party take place on a superyacht as part of the celebrations, partially for Sánchez’s son Evan’s 19th birthday but also as a way to kick off the nuptials. A cocktail party and a pyjama party are also expected to be part of the wedding schedule.

Here is the complete breakdown of the ultimate numbers needed to make up and plan the Bezos-Sánchez wedding…

£35million: This is reported to be the overall cost of the wedding, which is more than 1000x the average British salary.

4-day extravaganza: The wedding celebrations will span 4 days, which is the same number of milimetres that Venice sinks every year.

90 private jets will be taking guests to Venice. This equates to 2,700 tonnes of CO₂ for round-trip long-haul flights.

250 guests will be in attendance at the wedding, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey and the Kardashians.

400 gondolas have been put on standby for celebrity guests, while activists threatened to fill Venice’s canals with 200 inflatable crocodiles to stop them from entering.

60 water taxis will be ferrying attendees to the venue, versus 100 floods that occur per year in Venice due to the climate crisis.

£3.7million diamond necklace – a wedding gift to Sánchez, which is worth more than 400x the average amount of savings for one person in Britain

£25,000 – the starting fee for Bezos’ luxury wedding planners Lanza & Baucina. This is the same as the average cost of an entire wedding in the UK.

£350 billion – the estimated combined wealth of all the guests, which is almost 200x the cost of solving homelessness in the UK.

The celeb guest list for the Bezos-Sánchez wedding includes Oprah Winfrey, who reportedly arrived in Venice on her private jet. Donald Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and their three children Arabella, Joseph and Theodore also arrived in Venice earlier this week. They were pictured arriving at the city’s St. Regis Hotel by boat.

Mick Jagger, Leonardo DiCaprio and Orlando Bloom are also reported to be on the guest list, with Katy Perry unable to make the event due to tour commitments, amid rumours of herself and Bloom having split. Speculation has begun as to whether Orlando Bloom and Kim Kardashian will hook up over the wedding weekend.

Kim, her sister Khloe and her mother Kris Jenner, as well as Diane von Furstenberg and her estranged husband, Barry Diller, have also arrived for the nuptials. Diller came out as gay in May, and this is von Furstenberg’s first public appearance since the news broke. Former NFL quarterback Tom Brady has also arrived in Venice via water taxi for the event.

The Daily Mail has also reported that Lady Gaga and Elton John will be performing at the wedding. The Rocketman star is said to own an apartment in Venice close to where the nuptials are set to take place. Gaga and John are already close friends after all, she’s even godmother to his children – and they’ve collaborated on songs together such as Hello Hello and Sine From Above.

The details of Sánchez’s wedding gown have also not been confirmed, though luxury Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana and Oscar de la Renta being the predicted top contenders for the dress and many of her other wedding looks.

Environmental organisations have protested against this conspicuous demonstration of wealth and status. For instance, both Greenpeace and Everyone Hates Elon released a joint statement in protest against the wedding.

‘Jeff Bezos is the second-richest man in the world yet is reported to pay a 1.1 percent true tax rate,’ it reads. ‘The multi-million-dollar wedding is reportedly happening over three days, with the wedding ring alone worth as much as $5million.’
An additional statement from Everyone Hates Elon says: ‘As governments talk about hard choices and struggle to fund public services, Jeff Bezos can afford to shut down half a city for days on end just to get married.’

However, Venice’s regional governor Luca Zaia has opposed the concerns aired by these protests, insisting that the city is able to withstand the interruption. ‘This is a city that handles 150,000 people a day,’ Zaia told Italian publication Corriere della Sera. ‘George Clooney, François-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek, Alexandre Arnault, Elton John and many others got married here.’ He also pointed out that the celebrations are expected to bring $23-34million to local businesses.

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro has also spoke out in support of the wedding, which has already been dubbed as ‘the wedding of the century’.‘We will always respect the right to speak out, but we reject every form of intolerance and prejudice,’ he said in an edition of Italian newspaper Il Foglio Quotidiano this week. ‘No one in Venice can claim the right of deciding who can enter, who can love, who can celebrate.’