While the date of their wedding is fast approaching, it’s their whimsical wedding invitation, not the billionaire guest list, that’s sparking the loudest reaction online.
A pastel-themed digital wedding invitation for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez has surfaced ahead of their multi-day celebration in Italy. The card, obtained exclusively by ABC News, asks guests not to bring gifts and instead honors three Venetian organizations with donations made on behalf of attendees.
The note reads in part: “We are making contributions in your honor and with gratitude to you for making the journey to celebrate with us in Venice.” The organizations named include the UNESCO Venice Office, the lagoon restoration group CORILA, and Venice International University.
Despite the philanthropic gesture, the design of the invite drew intense scrutiny across platforms. Some users were surprised by the casual, cartoonish style given the high-profile nature of the event.
“This is the UGLIEST invitation i’ve ever seen 😂” one Instagram user wrote, earning over 1,200 likes. A second person added, “That’s the invite??? It looks so cheap. How much did they pay for that???”
Some netizens questioned whether the card was authentic at all. One commented, “You’re telling me this is the wedding invite of one of the world’s richest men?? There is no way 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣”
Another remarked, “This can’t be the real invite.” One user on Facebook mocked its appearance, saying it resembled a last-minute community college brochure project.
The couple, who began dating publicly in 2019 and got engaged in 2023, are hosting a three-day affair in Venice, with celebrations taking place from June 26 to June 28, according to MailOnline.
Sources told the outlet that the pair will officially say “I do” on June 27 on the private island of San Giorgio, home to the 16th-century Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore. The island is not open to the public and is currently hosting Bezos’ $500 million superyacht.
A welcome gala is expected on June 26, and a closing celebration is believed to be planned for June 28. Several measures have been taken to ensure that the 200 to 250 wedding guests who are likely to attend the events are well cared for.
The Globe and Mail reports that the organisers have booked at least 30 water taxis, 90 private jets, and multiple hotel buyouts across Venice, including the high-end Aman and Cipriani properties.
Roughly 80 percent of the wedding’s vendors are Venetian, according to the Associated Press, including pastry makers Rosa Salva and Murano glassware firm Laguna B.
Regional president Luca Zaia confirmed to reporters that the total cost of the affair is estimated between €40 to 48 million (approximately $63 to 76 million USD), as reported by The Globe and Mail.
With that figure, some netizens have questioned how such a large budget could produce a wedding invite they found so visually underwhelming. One user commented, “Lol so tacky,” while another quipped that the design looked like it had been made by a child.
Bezos and Sanchez have both been previously married. Bezos split from MacKenzie Scott in 2019 after 25 years of marriage. Sanchez, a former news anchor and helicopter pilot, finalized her divorce from talent agent Patrick Whitesell that same year.
Their union has been dubbed the “Wedding of the Century” by some media outlets, not only for its scale but for its confluence of celebrity, wealth, and exclusivity. Guests reportedly include Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian, and possibly members of the Trump family.
The couple had been in the news a few months earlier due to Bezos’ Blue Origin’s space mission. Sanchez had traveled to space in April with five other women — Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, and Kerianne Flynn.
In an interview after the trip, Sánchez spoke about the powerful experience, but instead of focusing on her words, many online couldn’t stop talking about her face.
Blue Origin celebrated another milestone after completing its 11th human space flight for its New Shepard program. The flight, which lasted around 11 minutes, carried the six women more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) above Earth, past the internationally recognized boundary of space.
It offered the women a few breathtaking moments of weightlessness before a parachute-assisted landing back in Texas. According to Phil Joyce, Senior Vice President of Blue Origin’s New Shepard program, Bowe, Nguyễn, King, Perry, Flynn, and Sánchez, were chosen for their roles as storytellers, each with a powerful voice.
They were selected with the hope that they would turn their life-changing journey into something meaningful, using their platforms to inspire people around the world for generations to come.
After the capsule that brought them back to earth touched down, cheers were heard from inside as the recovery crew approached. Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin, opened the capsule door, and Sánchez, the first to emerge, was visibly emotional.
“I’m so proud of this crew,” Sánchez said tearfully, sharing how King, who had initially been afraid, found the experience deeply transformative. Sánchez herself was full of excitement, recalling how they looked out the window and saw the moon.
“Earth looked so quiet,” she noted, as it wasn’t what she had expected. “It was quiet, but really alive,” she added. From that vantage point, she realized how connected we all are, even though we’re often divided by borders on Earth.
Sánchez described feeling “complete and utter joy and gratefulness” that made her want to come back and hug everyone. She was overwhelmed with emotion as she hadn’t anticipated reacting so deeply to the moment. She even joked that she had to return since she and Bezos were getting married, and it would be a bummer if she didn’t.
Sánchez divulged that everyone in the capsule felt the same joy and camaraderie. Before wrapping up, she thanked the Blue Team for making the journey possible and expressed hope that more people could one day experience it too.
Clips from Sánchez’s interview quickly began circulating online, but rather than celebrating her message or the mission, many viewers zeroed in on her appearance.
@metrouk Lauren Sánchez, journalist and fiancée to Jeff Bezos, has said that her brief adventure in space has helped her understand that we are all connected. Sánchez travelled in the Blue Origin suborbital spacecraft New Shepard, as part of what the company was branding as the all-female crew into space. Other famous names taking part in the mission include pop star Katy Perry and journalist Gayle King. #space #blueorigin #fyp #spacetok #katyperry #blueorigin ♬ Interstellar – Saymon Cleiton & jhonatan Rodrigues
One viewer couldn’t help but ask, “What happened to her mouth.” Another person echoed the sentiment with a blunt observation, “What happened to her face.” Shock seemed to ripple through parts of the internet, with comments like, “My god her face 😳.”
Another person noticed something unsettling, “It looked like her face shifted.” Some commenters went as far as to offer harsh criticism, “She basically destroyed her face 😳.”
One viewer took a more speculative tone, saying, “She’s clearly having some kind of allergic reaction to the capsule. Look how swollen her lips are. Someone get this lady a Benadryl.”
Concerns about her expressions also surfaced, “Her face doesn’t move.” And of course, a theory made its expected appearance in the comment, “Lots of Botox.”
The internet buzz doesn’t seem to concern Sánchez, whose focus is on a much bigger mission, amplifying women’s representation in space and inspiring the next generation of explorers.
Before the space flight, Sánchez, who played a key role in organizing the mission, shared her motivation for assembling the all-women crew. She said she carefully selected each participant for their ability to inspire others.
“All of these women are storytellers in their own right. They’re going to go up to space and be able to spread what they felt in different ways,” she expounded.
As a journalist and author, Sánchez also expressed hope that the mission would help redefine what explorers look like for future generations. With women making up only about 11 percent of those who’ve ever traveled to space, and rarely without male counterparts, she emphasized the importance of representation in space exploration.
Sánchez also pushed back against criticism questioning the necessity of the mission. “We can all speak to the response we’re getting from young women from young girls about what this represents,” she declared.
Fired up about the negative comments, she emphasized the dedication of the thousands of Blue Origin employees who pour their energy and passion into their work. “They love their work and they love the mission and it’s a big deal for them,” she gushed.
But instead of dismissing the criticism, Sánchez encouraged skeptics to see the work firsthand, believing that experiencing it up close would offer a more eye-opening perspective on the mission’s purpose and impact.
