Jeff Bezos, one of the wealthiest people in the world, is getting married this month. What could he and his bride, former TV journalist Lauren Sánchez, possibly want as a gift?
“Well, I wouldn’t get them anything that I could buy on Amazon,” joked Jean Shafiroff, a philanthropist and socialite in New York City. Shafiroff said she did not know Bezos and Sánchez personally, but had attended and given gifts at many sumptuous parties.
Gift registries are standard for most weddings. However, the etiquette is a little different for some very wealthy couples. When Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were married in 2009, their three publicly available online gift registries—featuring items like a $300 KitchenAid stand mixer from Williams Sonoma and a Tiffany & Co. $295 silver vegetable spoon—were closely scrutinized by the public and the media. Trump and Kushner did not respond to requests for comment.
“Couples that are high net worth have to be very careful when it comes to setting up a registry,” said Elaine Swann, an etiquette expert with 22 years of experience who has worked with high-net-worth clients. “It should be something that’s private and not a public registry.” Including a registry link in the wedding invitation is also considered a faux pas.
“It’s really easy to look at a registry as a greedy, gross thing from the couple, right?” said Lizzie Post, co-president of the Emily Post Institute. “But the registry is actually supposed to be a helpful tool for the guests.”
Wedding-etiquette experts said it was up to the couple to set expectations about whether and what to give.
People familiar with the matter said that Bezos and Sánchez did not ask guests for gifts. In May, the couple told guests that they donated to the UNESCO office in Venice, which preserves the city’s cultural heritage; CORILA, which works to protect the city’s lagoons; and Venice International University.
Shafiroff, a well-known philanthropist in the New York social scene, said the most likely path for Bezos and Sánchez would be to highlight a few charities they would like their guests to donate to.
Jaime Xie, daughter of Fortinet billionaire Ken Xie, model and former star of Netflix show “Bling Empire,” said her go-to wedding gifts were Hermès trays and blankets, or Tiffany & Co. home goods like teacups. For the upcoming weddings of friends this summer, she said, she has her eye on Smeg’s $800 toasters made in collaboration with Dolce & Gabbana.
Billionaires can afford to get creative with gifts. To celebrate his dating anniversary with his wife, Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg (with help from rapper T-Pain) recorded and released a slowed-down, acoustic cover of Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz’s “Get Low.” The Meta co-founder also commissioned a bright-blue statue of Chan from sculptor Daniel Arsham—though Zuckerberg later revealed on Theo Von’s podcast “This Past Weekend” that Chan did not like it. In 2004, Oracle founder Larry Ellison gave his fourth wife, Melanie Craft, 911,744 shares of Oracle stock as a wedding present.
Sánchez and Bezos have said little publicly about the gifts they have given or received. In early 2024, Sánchez posted a since-deleted Instagram photo praising a charm necklace her children had designed for her birthday. (The photo also showed her wearing a chain with the initials “LB”—perhaps a nod to her upcoming nuptials.) After she went up in a Blue Origin rocket in April, Sánchez posted on social media a bag gifted to her by the Kardashians: a $6,995 minaudière shaped like a UFO.
Page Six reported that Bezos had a strict “no gifts” policy for his 60th birthday party last January. But in 2004, Bezos told the radio program Marketplace that the most impactful gifts he ever received were the construction toys his grandfather gave him as a child, such as Legos, Erector Sets and Lincoln Logs. For the fifth wedding anniversary of Bezos and former wife, MacKenzie Scott, Scott gifted him a five-foot-tall Lego chest.
In the absence of clear guidance, experts said, an engraved picture frame or anything sentimental and personal to the couple’s interests should always be welcome.
A gift idea Swann has suggested in the past for luxury weddings is buying the rights to a meaningful photo of the couple, such as the kind taken at red carpets for black-tie galas and fundraisers with professional photographers, and placing it in a personalized frame. Rare collectors’ items, depending on the couple’s interests, can also work.
The most important thing to remember, Swann said, is that guests shouldn’t stress over finding a gift that matches the couple’s financial means.
“Anytime you’re attending a wedding that’s in a whole other tax bracket, go into it owning the space that you have been invited into,” Swann said. “Recognize that your presence is a present to the couple who has invited you.”
Write to Ashley Wong at ashley.wong@wsj.com
