VENICE, Italy — (AP) — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez 's Venice wedding bonanza got under way Thursday with the couple sharing a kiss before leading their celebrity guests through the lagoon city to the first bash of the weekend.
A string of water taxis cut through the lagoon to bring Bezos, Sanchez and their guests to the Madonna dell'Orto cloister on the Cannaregio district on the northern edge of Venice. Paparazzi in their own boats followed close behind in a controlled chase, trying to capture the guests on camera, as police on jet skis patrolled a no-go zone.
The details of the nuptials have been a tightly kept secret, though the guest list has firmed up as guests such as Oprah Winfrey, Orlando Bloom and former American footballer Tom Brady arrived Thursday.
Veneto Gov. Luca Zaia has strongly defended the wedding as an economic and reputational boon for Venice, saying the price tag he had seen was between 40 million and 48 million euros (US$46.7 million to $56 million). He told reporters this week that it would bring 90 private jets to the Treviso and Venice airports and a celebrity quotient that would “bring visibility and promotion" to Venice that he said was worth more than five American Super Bowls.
Here's a look at the who's who of the Bezos-Sánchez nuptials.
The bride and groom are staying at the Aman Venice hotel o n the Grand Canal, where they posed for photos and shared a kiss on Thursday.
Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and their three children arrived Wednesday.
Other celebrities on the guest list, according to two people close to the wedding who spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, include:
— Kim Kardashian, her sister and mother who were seen arriving at the Madonna dell'Orto event Thursday evening.
— Mick Jagger
— Leonardo DiCaprio
— Orlando Bloom
— Microsoft founder Bill Gates
— Diane von Furstenberg and her husband Barry Diller
— Katy Perry had originally been expected but the latest update had her as not attending.
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 Sanchez,” 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 keeping with Venice's tradition as an open city that has welcomed popes, emperors and ordinary visitors alike for centuries.
“We will always respect the right to speak out, but we reject every form of intolerance and prejudice,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in Thursday’s edition of Italian newspaper Il Foglio Quotidiano. “No one in Venice can claim the right of deciding who can enter, who can love, who can celebrate.”
Bezos donated 1 million euros each to three environmental research organizations working to preserve Venice, according to Corila, the Venetian environmental research association.
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Winfield reported from Rome.
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