Four weddings and a clash of dates

Celebrity watchers were spoilt for choice as the wedding of glamour girl Jordan - labelled the showbusiness wedding of the year - coincided with GMTV presenter Kate Garraway, model Jodie Kidd and Coronation Street actress Samia Ghadie all walking up the aisle in star-studded ceremonies

Turning their backs on the media attention they often seek, the brides went to extraordinary lengths to avoid being photographed in their gowns.

Each had sold the exclusive rights to their ceremonies to celebrity magazines.

Only the new Mrs Parker Bowles, journalist Sara Buys, posed happily for the cameras after marrying Tom Parker Bowles, stepson of the Prince of Wales.

Charles, wife Camilla and his sons William and Harry were all smiles as they arrived at the wedding of Camilla's son Tom to fashion writer Sara.

Eton-educated Tom, previously perhaps most famous for being exposed in 1999 for snorting cocaine at a West End party, wed at 13th-century St Nicholas Church in Rotherfield Greys near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

The food writer spent at least 20 minutes in the nearby Maltsters Arms steadying any pre-wedding jitters.

William and Harry arrived around 15 minutes before the wedding in matching dark morning suits, white shirts and pink ties without girlfriends Kate Middleton and Chelsy Davy.

Charles and Camilla arrived a few minutes later and delighted the crowds by pulling up outside the church so that they were within touching distance of onlookers.

In the first of yesterday's celebrations, soap beauty Miss Ghadie, who plays hairdresser Maria Sutherland, married 29-year-old Matthew Smith at St Philips Church in Alderley Edge, Cheshire.

Following in the footsteps of Jordan, the couple signed a deal with a glossy magazine and details of the ceremony were kept a closely-guarded secret.

Jodie Kidd's wedding to Internet entrepreneur Aidan Butler at a 16th-century church in Twineham, West Sussex, was also largely kept under wraps.

Kidd arrived in the back of a black car and covered in a sheet making it almost impossible for on-lookers to grab a glimpse of her dress as she was ushered in for the ceremony.

In July, GMTV presenter Kate Garraway announced her engagement to former Labour spin doctor-turned-psychotherapist Derek Draper on the show.

But yesterday she was shielded from media attention by a bodyguard wielding strategically placed umbrellas to block the view of photographers as she left her wedding.

Meanwhile, few details of Jordan's marriage to Peter Andre were leaking from the tight security surrounding what was possibly the most hotly-anticipated wedding of the year.

Jordan, 27, and Peter, 32, met and fell in love on ITV reality show I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!, but while they courted in the glare of publicity, yesterday they were kept hidden by a team of security guards at the gated entrance and along the mile and a half driveway to the castle.

Helicopters and police bolstered the operation, which kept both wellwishers and scores of media at bay.

The happy couple had invited 350 people to witness their fairytale wedding, which was reported to include Jordan being taken to the ceremony in a Cinderella-style horse-drawn carriage.

In a departure from tradition, Jordan - real name Katie Price - was said to have walked down the aisle to Whitney Houston's I Have Nothing, from the soundtrack of The Bodyguard.

And, as the couple signed the register, a choir sang Stevie Wonder's hit, Signed Sealed, Delivered.

But, with the champagne still flowing at the receptions and the ink barely dry on the wedding register, punters have already started betting on which of the marriages will end the quickest.

Bookmaker William Hill has Tom Parker Bowles' partnership as 6/4 favourites to endure the longest, with Kate Garraway and Derek Draper 5/2 second favourites.

They have Jordan and Peter Andre as 4/1 shots, while Jodie Kidd's and Samia Ghadie's marriages are the joint 5/1 outsiders.

Asked if it were not a little cruel to speculate so swiftly after the celebrations, spokesman Graham Sharpe said: "If these people didn't flaunt their weddings all over the place, then maybe there wouldn't be demand for others to do things like this."