A weekend of WAG weddings - at a cost of £3.25m

There will be acres of purple carpet and cavernous marquees with starlight-effect ceilings. Spray-on tan stocks have been raided and celebrity magazines have blown their budgets.

In a display of conspicuous consumption not seen since, well, the last England footballer's wedding, four of the nation's best-paid sportsmen will celebrate their nuptials this weekend at a collective cost of £3.25m.

England and Chelsea captain John Terry, 26, kicked it off when he married Toni Poole, 24, at a £1m ceremony at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire yesterday.

The couple will be followed today by Liverpool star Steven Gerrard, Manchester United captain Gary Neville, his teammate Michael Carrick and their respective fiancées. The result will be a blur of activity as teammates descend (Wayne Rooney and his fiancée, Coleen McLoughlin, will attend the Gerrard and Neville events) and the photography teams of OK! and Hello! magazines, who between them have paid an estimated £1.75m for the rights to three of the weddings, gather their material.

Editors at OK!, which won the bidding war for the Terry and Gerrard nuptials by paying £750,000 and £800,000 respectively, declined to comment on whether the fixtures clash was a mixed blessing by squeezing two expensive buy-ups into a single issue. A source said: "We don't get to dictate when a couple should get married."

Neville, 32, and his fiancée Emma Hadfield, 24, will follow their ceremony at Manchester Cathedral today with a reception at their new £4m home in a marquee with a chequered floor decked out in red, white and black - the United colours.

If the weekend is a contest over who can throw the most cash at their big day, Carrick, 25, is in the relegation zone. He has spent a miserly £250,000 on his wedding to Pilates instructor Lisa Roughead, 25, at Stapleford Park in Leicestershire. That outlay will be almost matched by the £200,000 that Hello! has reputedly paid for the picture rights.

But above all, these will be private affairs (except for OK! and Hello! readers). The National Trust agreed to close its Cliveden estate in Berkshire for Gerard's wedding after he made an undisclosed "but significant" donation.

A game of other halves

JOHN TERRY AND TONI POOLE
When: Friday 15 June.
Where: Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire.
Cost: £1m
Guests: Roman Abramovich, who may bring his girlfriend, the Russian socialite Daria Zhukova, plus Frank Lampard and partner Elen Rives, Ashley Cole and wife Cheryl.

STEVEN GERRARD AND ALEX CURRAN
When: Saturday 16 June.
Where: Cliveden House Hotel, Berkshire.
Cost: £750,000
Guests: Michael and Louise Owen; Jamie Carragher and wife Nicola; Robbie Fowler and wife Kerry; Harry Kewell and girlfriend Sheree Murphy; plus Wayne and Coleen will be at the party.

MICHAEL CARRICK AND LISA ROUGHEAD
When: Saturday 16 June.
Where: Stapleford Park, Leicestershire.
Cost: £250,000
Guests: Liverpool's Peter Crouch and girlfriend Abbey Clancy; Chelsea and England player Joe Cole and partner Carly Zucker; Spurs striker Jermain Defoe and girlfriend Charlotte Mears.

GARY NEVILLE AND EMMA HADFIELD
When: Saturday 16 June
Where: Manchester Cathedral and the couple's mansion near Bolton.
Cost £1m
Guests: Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand. His brother Phil will be the best man. Victoria Beckham is expected but David is playing for Real Madrid.

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