Jeff Bezos’ Lavish Venice Wedding Sparks Protests Over City’s Fragile Future

Venice, Italy — As Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez capped off a three-day celebration of their high-profile wedding on the secluded island of San Giorgio, hundreds of Venetians filled the city’s narrow streets—not with confetti or champagne, but with protest banners and chants of resistance.

“Kisses yes, Bezos no,” read one of the many slogans waved by demonstrators who gathered Saturday to condemn what they viewed as an extravagant display of wealth that disregards the city’s growing social and environmental crises.

The world’s fourth-richest man exchanged vows with Sánchez in an exclusive Friday evening ceremony attended by roughly 200 celebrities and power players. The guest list included Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Brady, Orlando Bloom, Bill Gates, and Ivanka Trump with her family. The couple stayed at the opulent Aman Venice hotel along the Grand Canal, occasionally emerging to blow kisses to cameras and pose for photographers.

But just across the city’s bridges and piazzas, a very different spectacle was unfolding. Protesters from across Italy marched with placards denouncing the event as emblematic of the disconnect between global elites and the daily hardships facing Venice’s 50,000 residents.

“We are here to continue ruining the plans of these rich people, who accumulate money by exploiting many others, while the conditions of this city remain precarious,” said protester Martina Vergnano.

For many, the wedding served as a symbol of broader grievances: rising housing prices that drive locals out, unchecked overtourism that strains public services, and the ever-looming threat of climate-induced flooding in a city already on environmental life support.

One of the protest’s most pointed slogans took aim at the media frenzy surrounding the event: “The planet is burning but don’t worry, here’s the list of the 27 dresses of Lauren Sánchez,” referring to the bride’s reported wardrobe of high-fashion Italian gowns by Dolce & Gabbana, Schiaparelli, and Bottega Veneta.

Although Bezos attempted to offset criticism with philanthropic gestures—donating €1 million (roughly $1.17 million) each to three environmental research organizations in Venice, including Corila—the move failed to placate critics.

“Those donations are just a misery and only aimed at clearing Bezos’ conscience,” said Flavio Cogo, a local activist. “We want a free Venice, which is finally dedicated to its citizens.”

Activists also claimed a small victory, saying their protest prompted a last-minute relocation of the final wedding party from its initial location to the Arsenale, a former medieval shipyard.

While city officials defended the nuptials, calling them consistent with Venice’s historic openness to visitors from popes to emperors, many residents saw the event as yet another instance of their city being treated as a backdrop for the wealthy, rather than a home for everyday people.

The juxtaposition was stark: On one side, global celebrities danced under chandeliers and toasted to love with vintage champagne. On the other, Venetians marched beneath banners demanding economic justice and environmental respect.

The private wedding, although shrouded in secrecy until Sánchez shared a photo of herself in a white mermaid-lined gown standing beside a tuxedoed Bezos, had been anticipated for months and unfolded under a media microscope.

The backlash, however, points to a deeper tension: the transformation of Venice into what many see as a playground for billionaires, even as its infrastructure and population buckle under the weight of global attention and local neglect.

Whether Bezos’ financial contribution to the city’s environmental causes will have a lasting impact remains to be seen. What is certain is that for many Venetians, the wedding of the decade was not a fairy tale—but a sobering reminder of whose voices are amplified, and whose are drowned out, in the rising tides of wealth and spectacle.