Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez ‘dial of the bling’ at the wedding of Venice after furore around that all-feminine space flight … but it still costs almost £ 10 million, Alison Boshoff reveals

The eyes of the world will be inevitable in Venice later this month when Financial Colossus Jeff Bezos marries to fiancée Lauren Sanchez.

Everyone in the Italian city expects a stunning representation of wealth of Amazon founder Bezos, with money to burn, and Mrs Sanchez, who looks like she likes to illuminate the competition.

And yet, despite the enormous wealth and the profile of the couple and their famous guests, it can be revealed that this will be a publicity and surprisingly small event. Modest, even.

With fewer than 200 guests – a fraction of what was expected – and a final bill that is said to be less than £ 10 million, it is clear that the bride and groom call the bling.

As a flawless source tells me: “The wedding has had a make-under.” The event will indeed cost the equivalent of individual change for the groom, which is worth $ 220 billion and spends $ 34 million a year to run its yacht – the $ 500 million Koru.

The yacht will be moored in San Basilio – the closest to the gigantic ship can come to the center of Venice because of the regulations to protect the fragile ecosystem of the city – and to be in sight of the hotel Cipriani, where many guests will be recorded.

It is thought that Jeff, Lauren and their immediate families will remain on the yacht of nine bedrooms. Other guests are divided between the near the Cipriani and Aman Hotels. The only famous pair that is sure is his actor Orlando Bloom and his wife Katy Perry. Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian are invited, but their presence is not confirmed.

Instead, the guests of honor will be the mother of Bezos, Jackie, who had Jeff when she was 17, and his adoptive vein and lifelong inspiration, Mike Bezos.

Everyone in Venice expects later this month a stunning representation of wealth for the wedding of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, writes Alison Boshoff

Mrs. Sanchez participated in the Blue Origin Space Flight next to pop star Katy Perry in April

The island of San Giorgio Maggiore may be the destination for the wedding of the couple

The Fondazione Cini monastery is reportedly one of the few possible ceremonial locations

The couple borrowed him $ 245,000, their life savings, to start Amazon in 1995 and Mike, who now runs the Bezos Family Foundation, is a particularly impressive individual, who only emigrated to the US from Cuba at the age of 16.

So why the – relative – modest plans? I understand that part of the reason was the PR disaster of the completely female Blue Origin ‘Space Flight’ in April-token Lauren and her five crew, including Perry, Skin-Dight spacecraft suits to shoot to the edge of the atmosphere of the earth. The project attracted enormous criticism as a meaningless stunt.

I was told that the couple did not send papers or e -mail invitations, the better to sail under the radar. And they have trimmed their guest list to the bare bones. “It is very sweet, very modest,” says a guest. “It’s not a flashy eruption.

“They understand that the criticism of the space flight was bad for a reason and respond to being less ‘Marie Antoinette’.”

The source adds: ‘People really underestimate Lauren and Jeff. Really, they are good people. They don’t want the wedding to be a lightning rod for inequalities in the world. It’s just a wedding. ‘That may be true, but the celebrations are still expected to take place at switching beautiful and exclusive locations.

Sources in Venice believe that the marriages will take place in the Fondazione Cini – a monastery on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. It is crucial that it will be free on June 25 – the most likely day of the wedding – because it was closed to the public on Wednesday.

After having hosted the G7 top twice, it can offer full security and privacy and is close to where the Koru will moor.

Sources also expect parties in the Palazzo apartment of Bezos’ good friend Diane von Furstenberg. Local sources indicate that all 79 rooms of the legendary Hotel Cipriani Blok have been booked from 24-26 June. A suite in high season costs around £ 20,000 per night. The Cipriani has the largest swimming pool in Venice and the Casanova gardens, where the notorious seducer met his conquests.

The couple is also supposed to have booked the Aman Canal Grande, the Palazzo with 24 bedrooms, where George Clooney made the knot with lawyer Amal in 2014.

Plans are coordinated with the mayor of the Venice office to minimize the disruption, but some locals who are concerned about overtourism plans protests.

“This city is not for sale, it is not a playground for the rich,” said activist Ruggero Tallon.

Additional reporting: Silvia Marchetti