For richer, for poorer: Phillips-Tindall nuptials will be a much smaller affair

THE souvenir teatowels are thin on the ground, the bunting remains unfurled and there is little sign of a nationwide desire for another round of street parties.

Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall's wedding, in Edinburgh's Canongate Kirk on Saturday, is a completely different plate of cupcakes from the first royal nuptials of the summer.

In fact next week's ceremony will be rather more private than the happy couple were hoping. Their plan to sell the photography rights to Hello! magazine, has been vetoed by Buckingham Palace. Royal advisers feared that the 500,000 deal would mean a repeat of the fiasco of Peter Phillips' 2008 wedding to Canadian Autumn Kelly. The couple went behind the Queen's back to invite the magazine to the ceremony and reception at Windsor Castle. The pictures, splashed over a bumper issue of the gossip glossy, included the Queen, the then royal girlfriends Chelsea Davy and Kate Middleton and toe-curling images of the Countess of Wessex, throwing her best moves at the disco.

It was a public relations fiasco, making the royal family look cheap, tacky and voraciously greedy at the same time. Now, thanks to the triumph of William and Kate's wedding, the House of Windsor's popularity is at an all-time high. The word has come down from on high that Tindall and Phillips must, under no circumstances, do anything to undermine this.

Instead, there will be limited and highly controlled, media access to the wedding. One photographer will capture the couple inside the grounds of the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The rest of the official press pack will be split between three positions, around the outside of the palace and opposite the Canongate Kirk. The ceremony itself, and the party in Holyroodhouse's State Apartments afterwards, will be off-limits.

This has not stopped enterprising news outlets from offering the residents of the Canongate with good views into the church good money to use their front windows for their long lenses

The BBC, possibly having gone for broke by deploying 850 staff to cover the other royal wedding - almost five times as many as were on duty at Sky News - is simply including the Phillips-Tindall wedding in its regular coverage. STV and ITN are each sending a crew to cover the event for their news bulletins and websites. Lothian and Borders police could not confirm how many international news organisations had applied for access but another media organiser reported "substantial interest, including from overseas".

But the official message is clear: this is a private celebration, not a big old media bunfight.

This is tough for Phillips, a world-class three-day eventer, who has to pay her own way in one of the most expensive sports on the planet. Her stable of 12 horses costs 500,000 a year to run. She supports her career - and at 30, Phillips is desperate to compete in the London Olympics next year - with sponsorship from Rolex, Land-Rover and sportswear label Musto.

In the absence of Hello!'s payout, how do a former BBC Sports Personality of the Year and her international rugby star intend to pay for their big day? Tempting as it may be, Phillips is unlikely to roll up the Canongate in a high-spec Discovery (although a vintage Series 1, painted white, and festooned with satin ribbons, would have a certain charm). However generous Musto has been in the past, it would be pushing her down-on-the-paddock image too far to walk up the aisle in jodhpurs and a gilet. But out of the three watches she received as part of her most recent deal with Rolex, surely one will go with white?

As for the rest of her outfit, it appears that Stewart Parvin is on meringue detail, with Paul Costello to produce something fabulous for the evening bash. Irishman Costello, a middle-of-the-road designer favoured by the late Princess of Wales and now Carole Middleton, has recent history with Phillips. He is responsible for the silver-grey coat she wore to the other royal wedding at Westminister Abbey, as well as the ruffled navy evening dress she changed into for the evening. Both were well received. This is hugely in his favour, as Phillips has got it badly wrong in the past: inappropriate expanses of thigh and cleavage, trilbies with dresses, flat caps with unflattering military coats, a vast bouffant purple number reminiscent of the hazelnut and caramel sweetie found in a box of Quality Street. Costello, with his understated (some might call it middle-aged) aesthetic will keep it modest and tasteful.

Parvin, a couturier so far under the radar that he does not have a Wikipedia page, is an established royal favourite, who dresses the Queen and Princess Anne as well as Susan Boyle. His wedding gowns are, mostly, understated and appropriate. They are not even, by wedding dress standards, expensive, with off-the-peg numbers starting from 1,895. (These are pound shop prices for a wedding gown - Kate Middleton's Sarah Burton masterpiece cost 250,000.)

When it comes to accessories, to complement the magnificent diamond and platinum engagement ring designed by her fianc, Phillips has the run of the family vaults. She may choose the King George III Fringe Tiara that her mother wore for her first wedding in 1973. Or she may cement her reputation as the royal family's tongue-pierced rebel, and walk down the aisle bare-headed. It is clear that Phillips is not competing with her cousin's new bride, whose every outfit is dissected to death. She has requested a "modern and chic" dress, not a "high fashion" one like Middleton's. According to Beth Forsyth, editor of The Best Scottish Weddings magazine: "Zara has always been one to do things her own way.

"As couturier to the Queen, Stewart Parvin is a safe pair of hands. His wedding gowns are immaculately crafted and extremely elegant. In her personal style, Zara doesn't seem too swayed by trends, so his simple lines and classic, unfussy approach will suit her down to the ground."

Phillips, whose normal grooming routine appears to involve a hairbrush and a rough flannel, is stepping it up for the big day. She has been spotted at Mayfair hair salon Michaeljohn, getting long extensions glued into her practical blonde bob. There have also been regular facials and - perhaps as a response to the carpers who lambasted her unkempt nails in the engagement picture - manicures. Unlike Middleton, who did her own wedding make-up Phillips, normally a stranger to the Clinique counter, has enlisted professional help.

Tindall, his best man Peter Phillips, father and ushers will wear black morning suits from Saville Row tailors Cad & the Dandy. The trousers will have a lighter stripe than is traditional, to add a modern twist, and the waistcoats will be either dove grey or buff. To his future mother-in-law's chagrin, Tindall's Shrek-like nose will appear in its natural state. He has broken it eight times in the course of his 12-year career and Princess Anne was concerned about it spoiling the wedding photos.

What the bridesmaids will wear remains as much a mystery as who they might be. Stephanie Phillips, the bride's 15-year-old half sister from her father's second marriage, seems a safe bet. Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice are also strong candidates, although this sadly means that they will not be wearing astoundingly hideous hats.

The rest of the guest list is exercising royal watchers greatly. Obviously the bride's grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins will all be there, in their allocated pastel colours, hopefully wearing better headgear than the last time they were all together in a church. Prince Harry does not appear to be bringing a lady friend. The callipygous Pippa Middleton, who made such an impression on Harry at that other wedding, is not coming either. Instead Phillips, who is very fond of her roguish cousin, is threatening to set him up with someone else.

England full-back Ben Foden and his girlfriend, Saturdays' singer Una Healy, should make the karaoke extra special.

So, after the fairytale frou frou of her cousin's nuptials, will Phillips' wedding be a big fat royal anticlimax? Beth Forsyth doesn't think so. "I think it will be a relaxed affair, filled with laughter and plenty of booze. I don't think Zara and Mike will give two hoots about their wedding "following" Kate and Wills. Theirs will be just as spectacular in its own way. With the Queen as your granny and a reception at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, how can it be anything else?