Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez to marry this week as secret plans for $600M Christmas wedding revealed

Jeff Bezos will marry Lauren Sánchez the weekend after Christmas in Aspen, DailyMail.com exclusively announced.

The billionaire Amazon founder, 60, and his ex-TV newscaster fiancée, 55, have bought upscale sushi restaurant Matsuhisa in the Colorado ski town for December 26 or 27, and their wedding is scheduled for Saturday 28, sources told DailyMail.com .

Bezos and Sánchez have kept the big day extremely secretive since he proposed in May 2023 aboard his $500 million superyacht.

Three sources told DailyMail.com that they had been informed of Bezos’ wedding on December 28.

A well-connected member of the Aspen community said the Amazon founder and his entourage arrived at the city’s airport on a private jet on Saturday.

The rumor around town – not yet confirmed – is that Bezos will hold 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 $600 million spectacle.

Sánchez let slip on the Today Toon last month that she had purchased her wedding dress, but precise plans have not yet been made public.

A source familiar with the wedding planning revealed to DailyMail.com that guests will arrive after Christmas Day at Aspen’s top properties, including the five-star St Regis Hotel.

Bezos, the second richest man in the world, is also said to have booked private homes in the wealthy city for his guests.

The wedding promises to be a weekend of festivities, insiders say, including a mountaintop ceremony with spectacular views of the ‘winter wonderland’.

One of the frivolities is a buyout at Matsuhisa, a source said. It is a luxury sushi restaurant with seating for up to 180 guests. Bezos and Sánchez were photographed on separate dates at sister restaurant Nobu in Malibu, California.

High-end Aspen wedding planners told DailyMail.com that the secrecy surrounding the event, which would be a highlight of the year for the society, was likely helped by the couple flying in vendors from across the country to put together their dream wedding day with rock-solid resources. confidential non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

“You’d outsource pretty much everything except transportation and lighting,” says Janie Lemons, an event planner in Aspen whose weddings often cost more than a million dollars.

“They pick their favorite things from around the world and fly them to Aspen, whether it’s a cake from Paris, a hairstylist from New York or a thong band from LA,” said another high-end Aspen planner, Sarah Rose Attman.

Lemons said that while many super-wealthy couples will opt for a “robust” and “understated” 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. “Aspen’s whole M.O. is to be a kind of rough old money: ‘I just like to jump in my Jeep with my golden retriever to go see the horses.’

Bezos and Sánchez have embraced that aesthetic, posing for a Vogue cover last December in a thrifty 4×4 at his West Texas ranch, the billionaire dressed in jeans and a cowboy hat and the ex-KTTV host in a simple white tank top .

However, there are limits to their modesty: her enormous 30-carat pink diamond engagement ring still stood out in the magazine photo and burdened her left hand.

Sources gave details of the wedding to DailyMail.com just days ahead of the billionaire party, but much is still unknown about the planned lavish weekend.

Even wedding industry veterans in the posh city are being kept in the dark about plans for the highly anticipated event, and the couple have barely spoken about it publicly.

Sánchez told Vogue last November that she had not yet started planning.

“We’re still thinking about the wedding,” she told the channel magazine. ‘Will it be big? Will it be abroad? We don’t know that yet.’

When asked if he wanted to be involved in the plans, Bezos reportedly laughed and said, “Oh God, no. Do I look so stupid?’

Today Show hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie took a chance when Sánchez sat down for an interview on November 20 of this year and cheekily asked about her wedding plans.

“So you asked?” Sánchez said, a little irritated.

She said she was “really excited about it,” adding that she was “thinking about the dress.”

“I have to say, I do have a Pinterest, I’m just like any other bride, so I do have a Pinterest board,” the billionaire’s fiancée admitted.

Despite the mystery surrounding the event, Lemons, Attman and others have some educated guesses.

Lemons said it’s typical for elite weddings in Aspen to have a Western-themed welcome dinner, with “multiple events throughout the weekend,” often hosted at one of the country house ranches surrounding the ski resort.

Attman noted that Bezos and Sánchez had previously visited the chic cowboy hat store Kemosabe, and said she was willing to bet the Amazon founder would include the boutique in their wedding.

“I noticed from the paparazzi photos that they seem to be fans of Kemosabe, so I bet that was incorporated into their festivities somehow,” she said.

“Maybe some kind of hat bar or at least a beautiful custom-made his and hers cowboy hat for one of the events – with lots of diamonds for her!”

She added that fun events can be planned around the wedding to entertain guests during their stay.

“Because Aspen is somewhat difficult to get to, and because of the elevation issues, most large-scale events include a weekend of activities such as skiing or hiking,” Attman said.

Top planners in the area all said actor Kevin Costner’s Dunbar Ranch is a favorite location for wealthy couples to hold wedding receptions, and can be booked for a week for about $1.4 million.

“It’s a beautiful property and it’s very close to the city of Aspen, which makes it unique,” says Lindsey Morgan of By Bello events. “I’d say Dunbar would be preferred.”

But for something unique, Bezos might turn to friends and family.

“The best venue in Aspen is the backyard wedding because it’s probably in someone’s billionaire’s house,” Lemons said.

‘These people usually have a house in Aspen. Many people stay with their family or friends who have a country house here,” the wedding planner told DailyMail.com.

“Jeff Bezos’ father is very famous in Aspen because he is a very nice, sweet man. He has been around for decades and is involved with the Aspen Institute.”

Bezos’ mother Jackie and her husband Miguel reportedly have a home in Red Mountain, one of the neighborhoods favored by the city’s billionaire residents.

Potential guests include attendees of their August 2023 engagement yacht party in Positano, Italy, reportedly including Bill Gates, Wendi Murdoch, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kris Jenner.

Aspen’s airport, nestled in a mountain valley, is expected to receive a larger influx of private jets for the incoming rich and famous guests at the Bezos wedding — although some larger planes will have to arrive at nearby airports.

“At Christmas it’s a parking lot,” Lemons said. ‘There are hundreds of fighter jets flying in that week alone. But above all, they will be packed with all his guests.

“They just voted to increase the size of the airport, but until that happens, a lot of people who have mega jets, a 737 or larger, can’t fly into Aspen. So the world’s very wealthy have to reach it from Eagle Airport or Grand Junction, about a two-hour drive away. ‘

Attman said there’s one thing even Bezos can’t control: the weather.

“Aspen has had a ton of snow and planes are getting canceled all the time, even for guests flying privately,” the top wedding planner said. “If the weather is bad, you don’t want to fly in anyway.”

The Weather Channel’s forecast It will be cloudy with snow showers all week, with some sunshine 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 city, and predicted takeovers there during the wedding weekend.

“They like the Caribou Club and the Aspen Mountain Club,” she said.

Attman also tipped the Caribou Club as a likely spot for the happy couple’s visit next week.