Early night for Heather

There were tears of joy, an A-list crowd and the party went on until 6am.

But not everyone joined in the festivities at Stella McCartney's wedding with the same gusto.

While most of the guests, who included Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Moss and Pierce Brosnan, partied until the early hours of yesterday, the fashion designer's stepmother Heather Mills was in bed before midnight.

The 34-year-old former model, married to Stella's

father Sir Paul McCartney, is seven months pregnant and could even claim to be jetlagged from a recent trip to New York.

But observers could not help seeing it as a snub. For when Heather married the ex-Beatle in June last year, Miss McCartney and her sister Mary both went to bed early to make the point that they did not approve of the wedding.

'Quite a few people noticed Heather went to bed early,' said a wedding insider. 'It was no secret throughout the day that there was a real frostiness between her and Stella.'

Miss McCartney, 31, is said to have felt obliged to invite her

stepmother because she knew her father would be devastated if he felt obliged to choose between his new wife and his daughter on her wedding day.

Miss McCartney's big day came on Saturday as she married magazine publisher Alasdhair Willis at Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute, western Scotland.

And she wept tears of joy on her wedding night as her father sprang a surprise on his youngest daughter.

In a touching tribute to her late mother Linda, Sir Paul had booked the Campbeltown Pipe Band.

The band, which played on Sir Paul's 1977 number one hit

Mull of Kintyre and was a favourite with Linda, performed tunes to guests as they finished their dinner.

The wedding party then filed outside to enjoy fireworks which included pink love-hearts and a display which spelled out 'Mr and Mrs Willis'.

The wedding service itself had been held at the white marble chapel on the 300-acre Mount Stuart estate, the family home of the seventh Marquis of Bute, former racing driver Johnny Dumfries, whose second wife Serena is a friend of Miss McCartney.

Describing the bride's outfit, the insider said: 'She wore a strapless, fitted dress in a yellowy, lime colour. We heard she had designed it herself, with Gucci boss Tom Ford.'

After the ceremony a reception was held in the grounds, then guests moved into the house's dining room for a vegetarian dinner of souffle to start, wild mushroom pie, vegetarian sausages and mash for the main course and a dessert of fruit and white chocolate sauce. Drinks included Veuve Clicquot champagne.

The estate was patrolled all the time by security men, some SAS-trained, to keep out any possible intruders.

Because of all the security and transportation, the wedding is believed to have cost £200,000. Yesterday guests, who also included Madonna's husband Guy Ritchie, Miss Paltrow's rock star boyfriend Chris Martin and Naomi Campbell, began leaving, mostly by ferry to the mainland.

Sir Paul, still wearing a buttonhole, and his wife took a helicopter to Prestwick Airport to catch a flight to London.

Middlesbrough- born Mr Willis, 32, was publisher of the fashionable magazine Wallpaper*. He is known as a charmer and is nicknamed Gucci because of his love of designer clothes.

He will move into Miss McCartney's flat in Notting Hill, West London, but the couple have told friends they plan to look for a 'family home'.

They also have a £1.3million mansion in Worcestershire and instead of presents asked each guest to buy them a tree so they can start a forest.