Fund manager and philanthropist Bill Miller’s 60-metre, 70-million-dollar yacht l’Arience and billionaire Shahid ‘Shad’ Khan’s 122-metre yacht Kismet were among the first vessels to dock in the lagoon city where protests about Bezos’s “buyout” of the public space have gathered pace recently.

The yacht belonging to Khan, who owns Premier League club Fulham and NFL team Jackonsville Jaguars, is one of the few boats in the world with a cryotherapy room.

Officials at Marco Polo Airport were tight-lipped about who had arrived on the flock of private jets that have already landed there, given the high security and secrecy surrounding the year’s most extravagant wedding.

But it is known that among the big names on the approximately 200-person guest list for the Bezos-Sanchez wedding are celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Mick Jagger and Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as Katy Perry, who travelled to space alongside Sanchez on a Blue Origin flight in April, AP reported this week.

Other guests reportedly include Kim Kardashian, Robert Pattinson, Bill Gates and Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who arrived in Modena Monday night.

The presence of Donald Jr has not been confirmed.

Venice has seen several celebrity weddings in recent years, the last between George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin in September 2014, which was less secretive.

Bezos and Sanchez are reportedly due to exchange rings at the Fonzazione Cini on the island of San Giorgio on Friday.

ANSA