Jeff Bezos is marrying Lauren Sánchez in Aspen the weekend after Christmas, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
The billionaire Amazon founder, 60, and his ex-TV news anchor fiancée, 55, have bought out ritzy sushi restaurant Matsuhisa in the Colorado ski town for December 26 or 27, and have their nuptials planned for Saturday 28, sources told DailyMail.com.
Bezos and Sánchez have kept extraordinary secrecy around the big day ever since he proposed aboard his $500million superyacht in May 2023.
Three sources told DailyMail.com they had been made aware of the Bezos wedding taking place on December 28.
One well-connected member of the Aspen community said that the Amazon founder arrived with his entourage on a private jet into the city’s airport on Saturday.
The rumor in town – as yet unconfirmed – is that Bezos will be holding the ceremony at Kevin Costner’s 160-acre Dunbar Ranch.
Another well-placed source said they had been told a wild cost estimate for the extravaganza of $600 million.
Sánchez let slip on the Today Show last month that she had bought her wedding dress, but no precise plans have been made public – until now.
A source familiar with the wedding planning revealed to DailyMail.com that guests are set to arrive in Aspen’s top accommodations including the five-star St Regis Hotel after Christmas Day.
Bezos, the second-richest man in the world, is believed to have also booked up private mansions around the affluent town for his guests.
The wedding is set to be a whole weekend of celebrations, insiders say, including a rumored mountain-top ceremony with spectacular ‘winter wonderland’ views.
Among the frivolities is a buyout at Matsuhisa, sources said. It is an upscale sushi restaurant seating a maximum 180 guests. Bezos and Sánchez have been photographed on several dates at its sister restaurant, Nobu, in Malibu, California.
High-end Aspen wedding planners told DailyMail.com that the secrecy around the event, set to be a society highlight of the year, was likely helped by the couple flying in vendors from around the country to put together their dream wedding day with iron-clad non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
‘You’d outsource pretty much everything except transportation and lighting,’ said Janie Lemons, an Aspen events planner whose weddings often cost more than $1million.
‘They’ll cherry-pick their favorite things from around the world and fly them into Aspen, whether it’s a cake from Paris, a hairstylist from New York, or a string band from LA,’ said another high-end Aspen planner, Sarah Rose Attman.
Lemons said that although many super-wealthy couples will opt for a ‘rugged’ and ‘low-key’ feel for their special day, the flower budget alone for elite weddings is often still in the ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars’.
‘People go to Aspen, not to be in Palm Beach, Beverly Hills or Manhattan to be glitzy and showy with their wealth,’ Lemons said. ‘The whole MO of Aspen is to kind of be this rugged old money, “I just love hopping in my Jeep with my golden retriever to go see the horses” kind of feel.’
Bezos and Sánchez have embraced that aesthetic, famously posing for a Vogue cover last December in a sparse 4×4 on his West Texas ranch, the billionaire dressed in blue jeans and a cowboy hat and the ex-KTTV anchor in a simple white tank top.
There are limits to their modesty however: her enormous 30-carat pink diamond engagement ring was still conspicuous in the magazine photo, weighing down her left hand.
Sources gave details about the wedding to DailyMail.com just days ahead of the billionaire bash, but much is still unknown about the planned lavish weekend.
Even wedding industry veterans in the ritzy town are being kept in the dark over the plans for the much-anticipated event, and the couple have barely discussed it in public.
Sánchez told Vogue in November last year that, at that point, she hadn’t started planning.
‘We’re still thinking about the wedding,’ she told the magazine. ‘Is it going to be big? Is it going to be overseas? We don’t know yet.’
When asked if he would get involved in the plans, Bezos reportedly laughed and said: ‘Oh, God, no. Do I look that dumb?’
Today Show hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie took their chance when Sánchez sat for an interview on November 20 this year, cheekily asking about her wedding plans.
‘So, you asked?’ said Sánchez, looking a little exasperated.
She said she was ‘very excited about it,’ adding she was ‘thinking about the dress’.
‘I have to say, I do have a Pinterest, I’m just like every other bride, so I do have a Pinterest board,’ the billionaire’s fiancée admitted.
Despite the mystery around the event, Lemons, Attman and others have some well-educated guesses.
Lemons said it is typical for elite Aspen weddings to have a western-themed welcome dinner, with ‘multiple events throughout the weekend’, often hosted at one of the mansion-ranches surrounding the ski town.
Attman noted Bezos and Sánchez had previously frequented chic cowboy hat store Kemosabe, and said she’d wager the Amazon founder would involve the boutique in their wedding.
‘I have noticed from paparazzi photos they seem to be fans of Kemosabe, so I bet that is incorporated into their festivities somehow,’ she said.
‘Perhaps a hat bar of some type or definitely a gorgeous, custom his-and-her cowboy hat for one of the events — with lots of diamonds for her!’
She added that there could be fun events planned around the wedding to entertain guests during their stay.
‘Because Aspen is somewhat hard to get to, and due to the altitude challenges, most large-scale events include a weekend of activities like skiing or hiking,’ Attman said.
Top planners in the area all said that actor Kevin Costner’s Dunbar Ranch is a favorite location for high-net-worth couples to hold wedding receptions, and can be booked out for the week at around $1.4million.
‘It’s a beautiful property, and it’s really close to the town of Aspen, which makes it unique,’ said Lindsey Morgan of ByBello Events. ‘I would say Dunbar would be the preference.’
But for something more unique, Bezos may be turning to friends and family.
‘The best venue in Aspen is the backyard wedding, because it’s probably at someone’s billionaire mansion,’ said Lemons.
‘Usually these people have homes themselves in Aspen. A lot of people stay with their family or friends who have mansions here,’ the wedding planner told DailyMail.com.
‘Jeff Bezos’ dad is very famous in Aspen for being a really kind sweet guy, he’s been around for decades and involved with Aspen Institute.’
Bezos’ mother Jackie and her husband Miguel reportedly have a home in Red Mountain, one of the neighborhoods favored by the town’s billionaire residents.
Among the potential guests are the attendees of their August 2023 engagement yacht party in Positano, Italy, who reportedly included Bill Gates, Wendi Murdoch, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kris Jenner.
Aspen’s airport, nestled in a mountain valley, is due to receive a larger than usual influx of private jets for the incoming rich and famous guests to the Bezos nuptials – though some larger aircraft will have to arrive at nearby airports.
‘It’s a parking lot at Christmas,’ said Lemons. ‘There’s hundreds of jets that fly in just for that week. But they are going to be especially packed with all of his guests attending.
‘They just voted to increase the size of the airport, but until that happens, a lot of the people who have the mega jets, a 737 or larger, can’t fly into Aspen. So the uber-wealthy of the world have to slum it from Eagle Airport or Grand Junction, about two hours away. ‘
Attman said that there is one thing even Bezos can’t control: the weather.
‘Aspen has already gotten a ton of snow, and planes get canceled all the time—even for guests flying private,’ the top wedding planner said. ‘If the weather is bad enough, you don’t want to fly in, no matter what.’
The Weather Channel’s forecast for the week is cloudy skies with snow showers, with some sun and a high of 34 Farenheit, low of 23F, on Saturday 28.
Debra Doyle of Aspen Eventworks said she knew Bezos and Sánchez have an affinity for private clubs in the elite town, and predicted buyouts there over the wedding weekend.
‘They love the Caribou Club and Aspen Mountain Club,’ she said.
Attman also tipped the Caribou Club as a likely spot for a visit by the happy couple this coming week.