Stella's walk down the isle

It was her mother Linda's favourite place on earth. And her father, Paul, immortalised it in his 1977 hit, Mull of Kintyre. Now it is where Stella McCartney is set to wed her fiancé Alasdhair Willis - followed by a £2million three-day reception on the Isle of Bute off Scotland's west coast.

The 31-year-old designer plans to marry publishing executive Willis on Saddell Beach on Kintyre - with the ceremony possibly as soon as tomorrow afternoon.

The couple will then join a 200-strong wedding party - expected to include Madonna, Kate Moss, Sadie Frost, Sharleen Spiteri, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin and Stella's siblings Heather, 40, Mary, 34 and James, 26 - on a flotilla of yachts for the hour-long trip to Bute, which has a population of 6,667.

Miss McCartney is understood to have arrived on Bute at around 6pm yesterday. Onlookers said they saw her taken away in a black Range Rover with tinted windows to Mount Stuart House - a Victorian home set amid a 300-acre estate - to oversee the final preparations for what promises to be the biggest showbiz wedding of the year.

Her father Sir Paul McCartney flew in from New York yesterday and is expected to arrive on the island today. It is currently unclear whether his pregnant wife Heather Mills will be there.

A jazz band will greet the party as they arrive at a private jetty at the Mount Stuart House estate. A source at the hotel has claimed that Luciano Pavarotti will serenade guests during the reception.

Security is watertight around the Gothic-style house, with every vehicle being thoroughly searched and staff wearing various grades and colours of laminated passes.

Hotels on the island have been blockbooked for what Mount Stuart spokesmen claim is a "gas convention" - a similar reason was used last summer as a cover for Sir Paul's wedding in Ireland.

Miss McCartney's publicist admitted that the wedding is to take place. He said: "As far as I am aware, it's happening. I just cannot release any details of when and where it will happen."