The Bezos-Sanchez Wedding: a Destination Wedding on Steroids, But Would You Plan It?

All the glitz and glamour anyone could ever wish for is in Venice right now as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former news anchor Lauren Sanchez get set to tie the knot this weekend.

The lavish, multi-million dollar affair is one of the most anticipated and highly secretive events ever to be held in the city. The last time the city saw this much bling was for “that other Venice wedding” – the infamous George and Amal Clooney wedding in 2014, where locals could get a glimpse of George at local hotspots like Harry’s Bar, famous for guests such as Ernest Hemingway as customers.

A-list guests have signed NDAs and started to arrive in the city Wednesday for the three-day celebration that began Thursday. It’s expected the wedding ceremony is to happen on Saturday, June 28. With a multi-million dollar budget, and hundreds of guests flying in – many of them on their own private jets – we wondered, would this wedding be one advisors would like to plan?

We went straight to destination wedding expert Laurie Keith Whiting, of Romantic Planet Vacations, for her thoughts.

“Venice is a good wedding destination because everybody knows of Venice making it an easier ‘pitch’ to wedding guests as opposed to a lesser known destination,” says Whiting. “It also offers many incredible wedding venue options like historic palazzos, castles and villas (that don’t cost US$50 million!).

“Venice is also easily accessible with direct flights from Canada. Our team at Romantic Planet Vacations has been planning destination weddings to Italy for over 20 years and help coordinate the group airfare, transfers, accommodations, wedding venues and onsite wedding planner.”

Whiting says they’d “absolutely love” to plan a high level and multi-component destination wedding like Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s.

“We have served a few high profile destination weddings in our 21 years but I will admit, nothing as high as a $50 million wedding,” she laughs.

“Our team of certified destination wedding experts is well-versed in the attention to detail required for any kind of destination wedding whether big or small, plus the coordination and service requirement of the group travel needs plus our very strong existing connections with reputable global partners makes for success.”

Whiting says most travellers to Italy don’t just go to Venice and her agency offers European wedding groups beyond the wedding stay itself – usually between three to five nights, with a explorative discovery package to get out and explore. She finds sometimes the group travels together – bridal party and guests – and sometimes it’s just one or the other. Either way, she ensures a fully-customized post honeymoon package for the newlyweds.

“In this case, I’d recommend the group fly into Rome, spend a couple of days there, perhaps with hop-on-off pass, then rail to Florence and spend some time there and end in Venice,” she tells us. “I’d probably recommend a historic and scenic villa that is either centrally located or just outside the hustle and bustle. Then guests will have direct flights home while the happy couple perhaps continues on to the Amalfi Coast for their honeymoon.”

Whiting says Villa Gioiagrande, Castel Brando, and Hyatt Centric Murano Venice are some great Venice wedding venues.

“Italy is just such a warm and welcoming and romantic destination in itself. If anyone chooses to wed in Venice however, I’d highly recommend shoulder or low season for not only a lower price but also to avoid the busy crowds.”