Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his former television journalist fiancée Lauren Sánchez have reportedly decided to move one of their wedding venues in Venice due to security concerns and potential protests.
The couple is now moving their wedding celebration from the historic Scuola Grande della Misericordia in the Cannaregio neighbourhood of the city to the more difficult-to-reach Arsenale, a former shipyard that is entirely encircled by water and only accessible by boat when connecting bridges are raised, according to BBC and Reuters.
The city of canals has seen protests by locals who are worried that the celebrity visitors will overrun Venice with private jets and yachts. The political views of the Amazon founder are likewise disapproved of by other protesters.
The wedding celebrations, which are still under wraps, are anticipated to begin on Thursday and conclude on Saturday in the charming Italian city, and several celebrities have been invited.
It is anticipated that between 200 and 250 people will attend, including numerous rumoured celebs including Leonardo DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian, and Katy Perry.
Ivanka Trump arrived in Venice early on Tuesday to attend the wedding, together with her husband, Jared Kushner, and their three kids. The daughter of US President Donald Trump and her family was seen getting in a water taxi.
Meanwhile, the protest group called “No Space for Bezos” has scheduled additional protests in the city for Saturday. They also took credit for forcing the wedding venue relocation. Tommaso Cacciari, a leader of the campaign, told Reuters, “The news that Bezos has run away from the Misericordia is a great victory for us.”
Bezos and Sanchez have requested that instead of gifts, attendees donate to three Venetian charities on their wedding invitation, Good Morning America reported. The charities include the UNESCO Venice office, “to safeguard this city’s irreplaceable cultural heritage,” CORILA “to restore the vital lagoon habitats that protect Venice’s future” and Venice International University “to support research and education for sustainable solutions.”
The pair has also rejected the notion that their wedding will overrun the already tourist-heavy city. Bezos and Sánchez expressly encouraged their wedding planners to try and minimise the disturbances as much as possible out of respect for the locals, Fox News reported.
“As event organizers who have been working in Venice for over 24 years, we feel obliged to set the record straight given the misinformation, untruths and misunderstandings circulating about the Bezos wedding,” Lanza and Baucina said in a statement.
“From the outset, instructions from our client and our own guiding principles were abundantly clear: the minimising of any disruption to the city, the respect for its residents and institutions and the overwhelming employment of locals in the crafting of the events.
“Rumours of ‘taking over’ the city are entirely false and diametrically opposed to our goals and to reality. No exaggerated quantity of water taxis or gondolas have ever been booked, the number of taxis reserved being proportionate for the number of guests. Before the recent news of protests arose, we had worked for there to be minimal negative impact or disruption to the lives of Venetians and the city’s visitors,” the statement concluded.