Jeff Bezos’s Wedding in Venice, as Viewed by the Locals

“Sposa bagnata, sposa fortunata” (a wet bride is a lucky bride), as an Italian saying goes.

Lauren Sánchez, however, may not see it that way. As the former journalist and her husband-to-be Jeff Bezos kicked off their wedding festivities in Venice on Thursday, a sudden thunderstorm and torrential downpour forced the couple to end their welcome party early, according to Page Six.

Between Mother Nature and the protesters who have threatened to block Venice’s canals with inflatable crocodiles, outside forces seem poised to disrupt the billionaire couple’s nuptials. The backlash has been growing increasingly intense leading up to the so-called “wedding of the century,” with a giant banner reading “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax” above a photo of Bezos’ laughing face unfurled on Piazza San Marco by Greenpeace activists. Members of a group called No Space for Bezos claimed victory after their protest threats reportedly forced wedding planners to move some of the festivities from the Scuola Grande della Misericordia to the Arsenale, a former naval complex where the Venice Biennale is held.

As Bezos, Sánchez, and some of their celebrity guests—including Oprah Winfrey, Orlando Bloom, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Kris Jenner, and Kim and Khloé Kardashian—arrived for the festivities, some guests with longstanding reservations at the Aman Venice were reportedly forced to relocate to other hotels. According to Town & Country, five of the city’s top luxury hotels—the Aman Venice, the Gritti Palace, Hotel Danieli, Belmond Hotel Cipriani, and the St. Regis Venice—have been bought out for the event, which has a guest list numbering around 200.

Some locals, though, consider the ruckus much ado about nothing.

“A guest recently asked if he should book a water taxi in advance because of the Bezos wedding,” says Sara Maestrelli, the hotelier behind Violino d’Oro, a member of the Leading Hotels of the World just a few minutes from Piazza San Marco. “We told him he should—but not necessarily because of the wedding alone. It’s June in Venice, and the city is always full of life this time of year.”

“Of course, a private event of this scale, with the level of security it requires, can bring a bit more complexity to transportation at certain times of the day,” she adds. “But this is not unusual for June, a month that often sees major events which can temporarily slow down the city’s rhythm. It’s something to keep in mind when travelling during high season, when Venice is already navigating the flow of mass tourism.”

In peak season, estimates put the daily number of day-trippers visiting Venice at around 40,000, making a 200-guest wedding seem like a modest event. The city regularly hosts much bigger events, including the star-studded Venice Film Festival and the Venice Biennale. “You could fit the entire wedding party in a vaporetto,” says Stuart Parr, owner of Piedaterre, a shop selling friulane, the elegant velvet slippers that are an essential part of a stylish Venetian’s wardrobe. “They’re so well organised and so well supported.”

“Venetians just carry on with their own lives. It doesn’t affect them,” says Mimi Todhunter, a New Zealander living in Italy for the past 20 years who hosts private dinners in her 15th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal. She adds that the wedding party has only rented out a handful of venues, including the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, which few tourists visit anyway, and have only booked about 30 water taxis. The only unusual thing she has noticed is the number of paparazzi around and people on their balconies trying to catch a glimpse of the celebrity guests. “I just feel a lot of people have jumped on the bandwagon and maybe it’s jealousy,” says Todhunter. “I mean, anybody can get married, in fairness, and I really don’t see why Bezos couldn’t get married here.”

But Bezos is no Clooney. Perhaps some of the ire directed against him stems from what Amazon represents to its critics: convenience at the expense of small businesses; hyper-consumerism; disregard for the environment and the workers it employs.

For activists like Federica Toninelli, who’s affiliated with the No Space for Bezos group, the root cause of the protests is the feeling among some locals that the city—and the policymakers who govern it—would rather pander to tourists than improve the lives of its residents. “This wedding is the symbol of the exploitation of the city by outsiders...Venice is now just an asset,” she told the BBC.

Carole Pertusini, business relations manager for IC Bellagio, notes that the protestors are in the minority and the majority of Venetians support it. “This wedding has brought considerable benefits to the city,” she says, explaining that many wedding gifts and accessories have been handcrafted by Venetian artisans. “Jeff Bezos has already donated one million euros to a few major Venetian environmental organisations focused on sustainability and the protection of the lagoon ecosystem. There are even donation options included in the couple’s wedding registry to further support Venice.”

While the attention around a high-profile event like this may cause some controversy, Maestrelli points out that the broader conversation around Venice should focus elsewhere. “The real challenge is finding a balance between welcoming visitors and preserving the delicate rhythms of the city,” she says. “We hope to welcome guests who want to experience Venice in a meaningful way—who take the time to discover its craftsmanship, its traditions, and the quieter beauty beyond the main sights.”