Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Tuesday, July 1st. Today on Forbes, here's how much the Bezos-Sanchez

wedding extravaganza really cost. Love is lavisher the second time around. Amazon billionaire Jeff

Bezos and Lauren Sanchez celebrated their nuptials in a star-studded and controversial three-day

celebration in Venice, and most of the focus was on how much the affair cost.

More than six months ago, rumors started circulating the Bezos-Sanchez wedding, the second time

each has said I do, would be held in Aspen and cost $600 million.

Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman joked on X in December, quote,

Unless you were buying each of your guests a house, you can't spend this much money.

Bezos himself reposted the comment, stating, quote,

This whole thing is completely false. None of this is happening.

Instead, the happy couple opted for what was reportedly an intimate 200-person ceremony presumed to be much less

expensive than the rumored Rocky Mountain hijinks. And that didn't include a pre-wedding

foam party, the 61-year-old groom and 55-year-old bride reportedly threw for one of her sons a couple

weekends ago aboard Bezos's super yacht, Coru.

Based on conversations with a dozen sources, including Venetian wedding industry insiders,

and multiple local vendors involved in or with knowledge of the event,

Forbes estimates that the Bezos-Sanchez wedding cost at least

$20 million, but could be closer to $25 million or even more, depending on what surprises

the hosts had in store for their guests.

The $20-plus million Forbes estimates for the celebration, based on confirmed costs,

is more than 600 times the cost of an average American

wedding, which the wedding site, the knot, puts at $33,000 or about $284 a guest, but won't exactly

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