In a rather subdued but ostentatious display of wealth, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, two high achievers are due to be married Friday, June 27, 2025 in one of the most romantic places on earth, Venice Italy. Tip of the hat to them and to the 27 dresses Lauren plans to wear on her wedding day. Same to Jeff Bezos whose estimated worth of $221 billion buts him in the stratosphere of earners. Their wedding is reported to cost around $50 million which is about 0.02% of his wealth. To put that in perspective, the average salary in America is $66,622.00 and the percentage of that salary that Bezos spent on their wedding is $15.07. So even though they spent $50 million on their wedding it’s as if the average American spent $15 bucks on their wedding. **********
An estimated 90 jets will bring members of the wedding party along with 200 to 250 guests to the area before the festivities begin, in addition to 30 water taxis, Reuters reports. Suites in the city’s five-star hotels will fill up. That doesn’t include what’s required to provide security and manage the various wedding events over the weekend.
But the hard truth is that most Americans are actually more ludicrously extravagant when they marry than this shiny, happy couple. Bezos, while he earns a relatively modest $80,000 salary from Amazon, reportedly makes roughly $8 million an hour from his Amazon stock, giving him a net worth of more than $220 billion. If he spent an estimated $50 million on this wedding — reports have put the cost at anywhere from $10 million to nearly $80 million — that would represent 0.0227% of his net worth. If Bezos does earn $8 million an hour, then this wedding would only account for 0.0714% of his annual earnings. It’s a tiny drop in the ever-rising, ever-warming ocean.
Bezos and Sanchez wave from a taxi boat as they arrive at the Aman Hotel in Venice on Wednesday.Photo: AFP via Getty Images
Meaningless wedding costs
Bezos’s wealth is so vast that the cost of his wedding — with official parties beginning on Thursday, the exchange of vows on Friday and a grand finale on Saturday — is virtually meaningless relative to his financial status. He can afford to go big and go home. Most Americans, even those who look down on such wild conspicuous consumption and who rail against Amazon’s dominance and argue about the sustainability of its business model, spend a massive chunk of their annual earnings — anywhere from 25% to 50% — on their own big day, if we are to believe estimates from the wedding industry. All on one day. That’s not only lavish, it’s insanity.
The average cost for a wedding was $33,000 last year, according to the wedding site the Knot — slightly lower than the $35,000 average in 2023. The cost rises to nearly $40,000 for a destination wedding. With the median household income at $80,600, according to calculations from the U.S. Census Bureau, that means the average American spends more than 40% of their annual household income on their big day. That includes $12,200 for the venue, $2,900 for the photographer, $2,700 for the florist, $1,700 for the DJ and $2,100 for the bride’s dress. Those figures may seem high, but the Knot says it polled nearly 17,000 U.S. couples.
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