A-list Guests Seek Shelter as Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos’ Pre-Wedding Party is Hit by Unexpected Thunderstorm

Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos’ A-list guests like Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner were forced to take cover on Thursday as the couple’s pre-wedding party was hit by a huge freak thunderstorm.

The lavish event held at the Madonna dell Orto cloisters marked the start of the billionaire couple’s lavish three-day wedding in Venice, Italy, which will come to a close on Saturday.

However, Thursday night’s star-studded soiree was brought to an early end due to the intense downpour.

Guests dived for cover under the vaulted cloisters as lightening bolts flashed across the sky and thunder rumbled overhead at the end of what was a torridly humid day with temperatures nudging 96.8° Fahrenheit. 

Torrential downpours and a strong wind left guests soaked as they then dashed for water taxis which had been scrambled a good 45 minutes ahead of the midnight finish time.

The strong gusts of winds whipped table cloths away and sent waiters scurrying for umbrellas to protect the VIP attendees.

One onlooker said: ‘It just goes to show you can have all the money in the world but you cant control the weather – although an Italian saying says a wet bride is a happy and lucky bride.’

Kim, 44, and her younger sister Khloe, 40, struggled to stay dry in their couture gowns as their security team guided them to their designated water taxi.

Kylie, who is the younger half-sister of Kim and Khloe, reacted to the weather by sharing a photo of her rain-soaked water taxi to her Instagram Story.

Bride-to-be Lauren was surrounded by tuxedo-clad gentleman carrying blue umbrellas over her as she carefully stepped on to her awaiting boat.

The TV personality, 55, had on a striking off-the-shoulder dress with a dramatic gold corset cinching in her already tiny waist.

Bezos, 61 — who popped the question in 2023 with a $3 million engagement ring — was seen following closely behind Lauren with an umbrella over his head.

In footage obtained by DailyMail.com, Lauren appeared to be in high spirits despite the rain ending their soiree early.

Once inside the water taxi, she was seen sharing a laugh with Bezos as the downpour intensified.

Singer Ellie Goulding was also spotted standing out in the rain as she and a fellow guest waited patiently for their boat.

Oprah Winfrey was next to brave the rain as she exited the party venue.

The former talk-show host, 71, carefully stepped down onto the boat and held the hand of a nearby security guard to ensure she didn’t slip.

Winfrey, who was joined by BFF Gayle King, looked stunning in a demure floral dress for the invite-only occasion.

Kylie Jenner, 27, and big sister Kendall, 29, exited the party shortly after their half-siblings Kim and Khloe.

Kendall, wearing a low-cut pink floral dress, led the way to the dock, where she and Kylie hopped aboard a water taxi.

The sisters effortlessly loaded into the boat as many of the event’s staff held umbrellas over them.

Kylie looked sensational in a busty strapless number as she fixed her hair before hopping aboard their ride back to the hotel. 

Bezos and Sanchez are set to tie the knot on Friday, June 27 in Venice, Italy after a two-year engagement.

The Amazon billionaire and his bride-to-be are said to have invited 200 people to their three-day Italian wedding.

Along with Kim Kardashian, Ellie Goulding, Khloe Kardashian and Ivanka Trump, the star-studded guest list includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, Oprah Winfrey, Orlando Bloom and Tom Brady. 

Earlier this week, a copy of the couple’s invite was leaked with one very specific request made on behalf of the couple.

They’ve asked guests not to buy them any presents and told them they’ll be making donations to multiple charities working to stop Venice from sinking on attendees’ behalf instead.

Bezos is thought to be spending roughly $15 to $20 million on his and Sanchez’s Italian nuptials. 

On Thursday, a source closely connected to the organization of the week’s events revealed to DailyMail.com exclusively that Bezos and Sanchez are already legally married.

‘They have been married for at least a month, more than a month. The marriage is fully legal and took place in America under American law,’ the insider revealed.

They added: ‘When they were planning the wedding, they were clear about the fact that they were already secretly married.

‘There is no application for a wedding license from the couple because it was not required.

‘Whatever happens at the wedding on Friday, it will not be a wedding. Under Italian law, it will not be a wedding celebration, any vows said or rings exchanged will have no legal meaning.’ 

The source also claimed that Jeff had personally confirmed that he and Lauren are already legally married, and that they had also signed a pre-nuptial agreement to protect his $244 billion fortune. 

Greenpeace and the UK-based collective Everyone Hates Elon have joined protests in Venice attempting to disrupt, or even prevent, the planned wedding celebrations of Amazon founder Bezos this week.

‘Jeff Bezos is the second-richest man in the world yet is reported to pay a 1.1 percent true tax rate,’ the two groups said in a joint statement.

‘The multi-million-dollar wedding is reportedly happening over three days, with the wedding ring alone worth as much as $5million.’

A spokesperson from Everyone Hates Elon said: ‘As governments talk about hard choices and struggle to fund public services, Jeff Bezos can afford to shut down half a city for days on end just to get married.’

‘If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax,’ one gigantic banner read in St. Mark’s Square.  

Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro and regional governor Luca Zaia have spoken out in favor of the nuptials, which have been dubbed, ‘the wedding of the century,’ pointing out that the celebrations are expected to bring $23-34million to local businesses.

‘This is a city that handles 150,000 people a day,’ Zaia told Italian daily Corriere della Sera. ‘George Clooney, François-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek, Alexandre Arnault, Elton John and many others got married here.’

Bezos has also pledged to make sizable charity donations, including $1.16million to Corila – an academic consortium dedicated to studying Venice’s lagoon ecosystem – according to Corriere della Sera and Italy’s ANSA news agency.

Earlier this month, anti-Bezos banners were hung in Venice from St. Mark’s Tower with ‘Bezos’ in blue capital letters and a red X over it as part of a ‘No Space for Bezos’ campaign, a play on Bezos’ Blue Origin spaceflight venture.

More outrage was sparked Thursday as Bezos and Sanchez’s wedding guests descended upon the Madonna dell Orto for the rain-soaked pre-party.

The chaos caused by the star-studded event reportedly forced canals to shut down and tourists to cancel reservations in Venice.

According to one business owner who runs a kayak renting service in the area, the bridges were ‘closed off’ to make way for Lauren, Jeff, and their guests, leaving customers unable to reach them.

‘We had a party of clients booked for Thursday night. But they were unable to get through to us because the bridges were all closed off,’ they shared.

‘Despite them having booking, the police wouldn’t let them pass. It was party of five Americans, and they had booked an hour and a half for $100 each and so we had to cancel.

‘The party involved was on a tight schedule and couldn’t rebook so we will have to refund them and so we have lost money.’

In addition to the bridges, the Venice local claimed that the canals were also shut gown and that police on jet skis turned them around when they tried to get through.

They added that there was ‘no real notification from the council that the canal would be closed.’

‘I don’t begrudge [Jeff and Lauren] for getting married, but this has cost us money and of all the places in Venice they had to choose the one by us,’ they added.

Photos also showed police presence all over the Italian city, including officers on jet skis in the canals, as water taxis went back and forth taking Lauren and Jeff’s guests from their hotels to the event.

Around 20 activists were seen protesting hours before the pre-wedding party in St Mark’s Square, the iconic heart of Venice.

Protesters held signs that read, ‘We are the 99 percent we have the power,’ ‘the planet burns,’ while someone even waved an extinction rebellion flag.

Sanchez and Bezos arrived in Venice for their wedding on Wednesday.

They were photographed outside the luxurious five-star Aman Hotel — where some suites cost nearly $14,000 a night — after being dropped off by a water taxi along with 50 of their 200-something guests. 

They hosted a drinks reception with a playlist of romantic music, blasting More Than A Woman by the Bee Gees. They then continued to play tunes like Nina Simone’s I’m Feeling Good, Lovely Day by Bill Withers and Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. 

Earlier that day, in the private garden of the hotel, which is surrounded by a 10ft brick wall, staff could be heard working to erect marquees, ready for a weekend of celebrations.

They also put a VIP jetty up outside the Aman Hotel for guests to use when they arrived.

Days before their Venice arrival, Sanchez and Bezos kicked off their wedding-week by throwing a rowdy foam party on board his $500million superyacht Koru on Sunday.

Pictures obtained by DailyMail.com of the lavish celebration show the loved-up couple covered in little more than soap suds as they relished in the summer sunshine.

Bezos proposed to Sanchez on the same superyacht more than two years ago in 2023.

While it’s unclear when exactly they started dating, Lauren and Jeff’s romance was first exposed by the National Enquirer in January 2019, while they were both married to their now-exes.

Soon after it was revealed, the billionaire businessman divorced his wife of more than 25 years and the mother of his four children, Mackenzie Scott, while Lauren left her husband, Patrick.

At the time, the bombshell report from the Enquirer claimed that Lauren and Jeff had been involved in an eight-month affair, which involved him ‘whisking his mistress off to exotic destinations on his $65 million private jet, sending her raunchy messages and erotic selfies, and having secret rendezvous at palatial private estates.’

The outlet said that it had tracked them ‘across five states and 40,000 miles, tailing them in private jets, swanky limos, helicopter rides, romantic hikes, five-star hotel hideaways, intimate dinner dates and ‘quality time’ in hidden love nests.’

Following the Enquirer’s accusations, Jeff fired back by writing a lengthy essay to the publication’s CEO, David Pecker, in which the mogul accused the company of blackmailing him.

‘Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten,’ he wrote.

‘[After] intimate texts messages from me were published in the National Enquirer, I engaged investigators to learn how those texts were obtained, and to determine the motives for the many unusual actions taken by the Enquirer.

‘We were then approached with an offer. They said they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation.’

He shared alleged emails sent to him by Enquirer staffers, in which they described the racy images they had ‘obtained during their newsgathering’ in detail.

‘If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?’ Jeff continued.

‘Of course I don’t want personal photos published, but I also won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks, and corruption. I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out.’

As for how Jeff and Lauren met, it was said that it was Lauren’s husband Patrick who was the first to introduce the two at an Amazon studios party for the movie Manchester By the Sea in 2016.

Her production team was then hired to film footage for Jeff’s rocket company, Blue Origin, in 2018.

‘Patrick and Lauren have socialized with Jeff Bezos and his wife for a few years, because both [former] couples have houses in Seattle,’ a source told Page Six after their affair was brought to light.

‘Then Lauren was hired to work on one of Jeff’s projects, Blue Origin, a space-launch company. She has been shooting aerial shots for Jeff.’

Despite the start of their romance being shrouded in accusations of blackmail and extortion, cheating allegations, and an explosive affair, the couple did not let it defer them.

In fact, after splitting from their respective partners, Jeff and Lauren didn’t wait long to start flaunting their love all over the globe.

They were seen for the first time together publicly in May 2019, when photographers caught them enjoying a romantic date night in New York City, and they made their first official appearance as a couple at Wimbledon that July.

Since then, the couple has not tried to hide their romance, and for the last five years, they have continuously jetted off on a slew of lavish getaways together, shared tons of adorable, PDA-filled photos together on social media, gushed over one another nonstop in interviews, and attended a slew of star-studded events side by side.