They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but in the case of the late Apple founder Steve Jobs and his billionaire widow Laurene Powell Jobs, the apple has landed at the opposite end of the spectrum. I’m talking about their daughter, Eve Jobs, the youngest of four children (Reed, Erin Siena Jobs, and her older half-sister, Lisa Brennan-Jobs). Eve, who is set to tie the knot with gold-medal show-jumping scion Harry Charles this summer, is preparing for a high-society wedding that promises to be nothing short of spectacular, set against the lush backdrop of the Cotswolds.
Unlike her billionaire parents’ intimate ceremony with fewer than 50 close friends and family, Eve’s celebration will be a grand affair, more in line with the flair once displayed by Steve Jobs’ rival, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who famously spent $1 million on his wedding. According to Tatler, the guest list includes royalty like Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, equestrian friend Jennifer Gates, and even former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
While she may not emulate her father’s minimalist style, Eve Jobs has always lived like an understated princess. Raised in Palo Alto, California, alongside her siblings in a historic 1930s Tudor-style residence, her upbringing mirrored Jobs’ design sensibilities, refined, thoughtful, and tastefully restrained. The same design philosophy carried into their $120 million superyacht, Venus, which could easily serve as the venue for one of her future billionaire bashes.
A Stanford graduate and rising star in the fashion world, Eve signed with DNA Models and has already appeared in campaigns for Louis Vuitton. While she may not inherit a significant portion of her mother Laurene’s $21.7 billion fortune, the wedding of her dreams is certainly in motion. Still, it’s fascinating to look back at the uniquely unflashy way her parents tied the knot nearly 35 years ago.
Inside Steve Jobs’ simple yet spiritual wedding-
At 36 years old, Steve Jobs married 27-year-old Stanford MBA Laurene Powell on March 18, 1991. Despite his millionaire status, thanks to his early Apple shares and his $10 million investment in Pixar in 1986, the wedding was a fairytale, minus the finances. The ceremony took place at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, witnessed by just 50 family members and close friends. Unpretentious and deeply personal, Jobs ensured that the ceremony was a reflection of himself rather than his financial worth. It was presided over by his Zen Buddhist mentor, Kōbun Chino Otogawa, who struck a gong and lit incense much to the confusion of many guests.
The only real disappointment? A vegan wedding cake shaped like Yosemite’s Half Dome rock formation. No champagne towers, no caviar canapés, no crème brûlées instead, the wedding party went hiking in the snow. As Jobs later recalled in Walter Isaacson’s biography, “We didn’t know if a spiritual ceremony would be legally binding, but we figured it was good karma.” Clearly, the ceremony meant more to him as a Zen moment of union than a grand social occasion. And while his daughter Eve may lean more toward a celebrity-style wedding than her tech-tycoon father, their shared love of nature will likely be a quiet thread that binds them on her special day. Steve Jobs would approve.
