Andy Murray, the No. 3-ranked tennis player, wed longtime love, animal artist Kim Sears, April 11 in a ceremony that apparently had the feel of a small-town royal wedding.

Scores of Dunblane residents and reporters braved the Scottish weather (“oh, the wind and rain,” as the folk song goes) to catch a glimpse of the bride and groom – she resplendent in a Jenny Peckham gown with a sweetheart neckline and crystal-beaded bodice and half-sleeves (is there anything more flattering than half-sleeves?) that showed off her figure; he equally dandy in a blue and green kilt. (Male tennis players: To paraphrase another song, ZZ Top’s “Legs,” “They’ve got legs. They know how to use them.”)

The wedding – which took place in Dunblane Cathedral with a reception following at Cromlix House Hotel, which Andy owns – was in marked contrast to last summer’s seaside nuptials for Novak Djokovic and his longtime love, Jelena Ristic. That was a private affair in Montenegro with coverage appearing afterward exclusively in HELLO! magazine, which paid a pretty shilling for the rights. (The money went to the Novak Djokovic Foundation.)

Whereas Andy and Kim just let it rip, and so the day had the feel of a hometown party in which everyone could participate. ...

You got to hand it to the press when it comes to making a mountain out of the proverbial molehill. Andy Murray’s getting married Saturday, April 11 – congrats again to him and Kim Sears – and there will be no Feddy, Rafa or Nole. (Thank God for Andy’s lack of famous guests. For a while there, I thought we were going to have to live with Nole’s Miami meltdown until the start of the Monte Carlo Open.)

So Andy didn’t invite the rest of the so-called “Big Four.” What a surprise. Well, it is to the press. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have been “banned,” “shunned” and “uninvited.” (Let us pause for a vocabulary lesson, here, shall we? In order to be uninvited, you would have to be invited to begin with.)

Look, when you play for the kind of stakes these guys play for, you’re not going to pal around. It messes with your head and your game. That’s precisely why I made the tennis players and swimmers in my debut novel “Water Music” rivals, friends and lovers: It’s delicious conflict, which is the meat of fiction. In my follow-up, “The Penalty for Holding,” the football players, too, find their personal relationships tangling their professional rivalries, although there it’s somewhat different, because football is a team sport.

Can rivals be friends in the real world? ...

Local hero in love: Andy takes a bride

Andy Murray’s big, fat celeb-less wedding