Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, 61, and journalist Lauren Sanchez, 55, exchanged rings on the small island of San Giorgio, across the water from Saint Mark’s Square, accompanied by singing from Matteo Bocelli, son of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Tom Brady, Jordan’s Queen Rania, Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and Kim and Khloe Kardashian, as well as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were among the A-listers present.
Yesterday’s evening bash – wrapping up celebrations for 200-250 guests estimated to have cost some $50 million – took place in the Arsenale, a former mediaeval shipyard in an eastern district of the lagoon city.
Around 1,000 people marched against the event yesterday, groups of activists and residents who object to the wedding and to seeing Venice being gift-wrapped for the uber-wealthy.
Some guests were seen leaving the Gritti Palace hotel in central Venice wearing their pyjamas, sometimes beneath colourful dressing gowns, before boarding small boats to reach the party.
Bezos and Sanchez had a more sobre style. At the ceremony the bride wore a high-necked silhouette dress and a tulle and lace veil by Dolce & Gabbana, which she told magazine Vogue was based on Sophia Loren’s dress to marry Cary Grant in the 1958 film, Houseboat. Sanchez was also wearing a pair of diamond earrings by Dolce & Gabbana, which, according to Vogue, was lent to her in keeping with the tradition that it brings good luck for a bride to wear something borrowed.