Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez have arrived in Venice for their multi-day wedding celebration.
The lavish affair is expected to draw A-list guests and cost tens of millions of pounds.
The “wedding of the century”, as it has been widely dubbed, is expected to draw around 90 private jets to local airports this week, ferrying a constellation of stars from the worlds of entertainment, politics, and finance.
The extravagant festivities are projected to cost the Amazon founder, the world’s fourth-richest person, an estimated €40-48 million (£34-41 million).
Mr Bezos and Ms Sanchez were spotted arriving at the exclusive Aman Venice Hotel on the Grand Canal by boat.
Ms Sanchez was also spotted by a Reuters reporter entering the hotel, a likely hub for many of the high-profile attendees.
Later that day, they were pictured leaving the hotel in evening attire, with Ms Sanchez wearing a sequin-studded gown while Mr Bezos opted for a white t-shirt and blazer.
The celebrations are set to commence on Thursday evening with an open-air gathering within the cloisters of Madonna dell’Orto, a medieval church located in the vibrant Cannaregio district, according to a source close to the arrangements.
Venice City Hall issued a directive on Wednesday cordoning off the area, isolating guests from activists who have been protesting for weeks that the celebrations will turn the city of gondolas and palazzi into a private amusement park for the rich.
“There’s only one thing that rules now: money, money, money, so we are the losers,” Venice resident Nadia Rigo said.
“We who were born here have to either move to the mainland or we have to ask them for permission to board a ferry. They’ve become the masters.”
The date and venue of the wedding itself are still unknown.
Some have speculated that Mr Bezos, 61, and Ms Sanchez, 55, may already have tied the knot in a private ceremony back in the United States.
Most of the estimated 250 guests are expected to arrive in time for the second party.
The source said that is slated for Friday on the small island of San Giorgio, in front of the famed St. Mark’s Square with its 99-metre-high (108-yard) bell tower.
San Giorgio island is home to the Cini Foundation, which organises international cultural and political meetings in an ancient monastery dating back to the year 1000, with a maze in the garden.
Prying eyes
Outside the Aman Venice Hotel, workers erected a striped canvas canopy with side walls on a floating wharf to protect guests from prying eyes and photographers’ long lenses.
Celebrations will conclude on Saturday with the main wedding bash to be held at one of the halls of the Arsenale, a vast former medieval shipyard, which has since been turned into an art space, in the eastern Castello district.
Surrounded by water and impossible to reach by land when connecting bridges are raised, the hall is considered a safer site than a previous location choice for the final party, a former medieval religious school in Cannaregio.
Mr Bezos, executive chair of e-commerce giant Amazon, got engaged to Ms Sanchez in 2023.
That was four years after the collapse of his 25-year marriage to Mackenzie Scott.
The couple’s decision to marry in Venice follows other celebrity weddings in the floating city, such as that of actor George Clooney and human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in 2014.
