Sir Paul Mccartney expected to bring home wife no 3

Sir Paul Mccartney is expected to marry his American fiancee, Nancy Shevell, on Sunday at the same venue where he married his first wife, Linda, 42 years ago.

The date the couple have chosen - October 9 - is poignant because it would have been his fellow Beatle John Lennon's 71st birthday.

Just 30 guests are expected to attend the civil ceremony at Marylebone register office in central London. Sir Paul married Linda Eastman there on March 12 1969. This will be Sir Paul's third marriage and Miss Shevell's second.

The wedding reception is, according to reports, being held in the back garden of Sir Paul's house in St John's Wood, close to Abbey Road Studios where The Beatles recorded most of their albums.

A small marquee has been erected in Sir Paul's garden and a further canopy outside the rear entrance of the house to allow guests privacy on arrival.

The low-key wedding is in stark contrast to Sir Paul's second marriage, to Heather Mills, a former glamour model from whom he was divorced amid bitter acrimony in 2008. A court ordered the former Beatle to pay Miss Mills almost pounds 25 million for a marriage that had lasted just four years before the couple split.

Sir Paul, 69, married Miss Mills in an altogether more lavish affair at Castle Leslie in Ireland in 2002 in front of several hundred guests.

At the time, his family had expressed their concern that he was rushing into marriage with a woman he had first met in 1999, a year after the death of Linda McCartney, who had died from breast cancer.

Miss Mills, who had part of one leg amputated after she was knocked over by a police motorbike in 1993, was vilified by the media and variously called a gold digger - an allegation she strongly denied - or else referred to as Lady Mucca, a label to which she fiercely objected.

This time around, the marriage to Miss Shevell, is being warmly welcomed.

Sir Paul's daughter, Stella McCartney, a fashion designer, who had made no secret of her dislike for Miss Mills, is understood to have designed the dress.

Miss Shevell, 51, is independently wealthy, being heir to a haulage firm run by her father which is valued at pounds 250 million.

Although she is 18 years younger than Sir Paul, the age gap is less than the quarter of a century which separated Sir Paul from Miss Mills.

It was reported that Sir Paul's younger brother, Mike, will be best man at the wedding. Sir Paul's daughter from his marriage to Miss Mills, Beatrice, seven, will act as the sole bridesmaid.

According to the reports, Stella McCartney has played a role not only with the dress but also putting together the dinner menu.

Sir Paul is a vegetarian and the meal being served to guests is meat-free and largely organic. A source said: "The wedding is in keeping with the way Paul and Nancy have conducted their entire relationship - low-key, understated and fuelled by goodwill. Neither of them wanted a huge fuss made and the main priority, for both, was family."

On Friday night, Sir Paul and Miss Shevell went for a meal at Cecconi's restaurant in Mayfair, where they were joined by relatives of the American bride-to-be. Miss Shevell clung on to Sir Paul's arm and in doing so showed off a large, diamond engagement ring said to have cost pounds 420,000. It is not clear which of her close family were at the dinner.

Miss Shevell's son, Arlen Blakeman, a university undergraduate, flew in from the US on Friday, according to an update yesterday on his Facebook page, and is due to return home on Monday. Miss Shevell's cousin is Barbara Walters, 82, the veteran US broadcaster, who took to the social network site twitter on Friday to declare: "going away for a big weekend. Will tell you more when I get back."

In doing so, she triggered the intense speculation that the wedding will be on Sunday, a suggestion backed up by the flurry of activity at Sir Paul's home.