VENICE, Italy (AP) — The Venice wedding bonanza of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos reached its third and final day Saturday after the couple tied the knot a day earlier in front of around 200 celebrity guests in a secluded area of the lagoon city.
Details of the much-anticipated wedding ceremony Friday night were kept tightly secret, until Sánchez Bezos posted to Instagram a photo of herself beaming in a white gown as she stood alongside a tuxedo-clad Bezos, the world’s fourth-richest man.
Athletes, celebrities, influencers and business leaders converged to revel in extravagance that was as much a testament to the couple’s love as to their extraordinary wealth.
A string of water taxis cut through the lagoon to bring Bezos, Sánchez Bezos and their guests to the tiny San Giorgio island, across the lagoon basin from St. Mark’s Square, where the couple held their private ceremony. Paparazzi in their own boats followed close behind in a controlled chase, trying to capture the couple and their guests on camera, as police on personal watercraft patrolled a no-go zone.
The celebrations are expected to end later Saturday with a large party in a former medieval shipyard, amid high security.
Most guests arrived between Thursday and Friday. The star-studded list included names like Oprah Winfrey and NFL great Tom Brady.
Here's a look at the who's who of the Bezos-Sánchez Bezos nuptials.
The bride and groom are staying at the Aman Venice hotel on the Grand Canal, where the groom posed for photos and the bride blew kisses to the press.
Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and their three children arrived Wednesday.
Other celebrities on the guest list include:
— Queen Rania of Jordan arrived in Venice on Thursday for the wedding, but she wasn't accompanied by her spouse, King Abdullah II, the monarch of Jordan.
— Kim Kardashian, her sister Khloé and mother Kris Jenner were seen arriving at the Madonna dell'Orto event Thursday evening.
— Kylie and Kendall Jenner
— Mick Jagger
— Leonardo Di Caprio
— Orlando Bloom
— Bill Gates
— Diane von Furstenberg and her husband Barry Diller
— Usher
— Jewel Kilcher
— Sydney Sweeney
The wedding has divided Venice, with some activists protesting it as an exploitation of the city by the billionaire Bezos while ordinary residents suffer from overtourism, high housing costs and the constant threat of climate-induced flooding.
One group called Extinction Rebellion staged a small protest in St. Mark's Square on Thursday featuring a masked bride and groom and people holding posters decrying climate change and income inequalities.
“The planet is burning but don’t worry, here's the list of the 27 dresses of Lauren Sánchez,” read one, a reference to the bride's reported wedding weekend wardrobe.
Protesters said that their plans to disrupt the arrivals of guests at one of the wedding venues forced organizers to move the event to the more secure Arsenale area beyond Venice’s congested center.
The city administration has strongly defended the nuptials as in keeping with Venice’s tradition as an open city that has welcomed popes, emperors and ordinary visitors alike for centuries.
Bezos donated 1 million euros ($1.17 million) each to three environmental research organizations working to preserve Venice, according to Corila, the Venetian environmental research association.
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Nicole Winfield and Giada Zampano reported from Rome.
Luca Bruno, Nicole Winfield And Giada Zampano, The Associated Press
