A dream wedding worth over £8,000 is the prize awaiting our Bride of the Year 2003.

Party Box Balloon Decorating Service is just one of the many businesses taking part in this year's competition to ensure our bride has a day she will never forget.

The Wootton Bassett business deals with around seven weddings every Saturday, yet its owner treats each like her own.

Nesta Richards, 46, said: "I find weddings really exciting and can't help thinking that whenever a bride gets married, I am getting married too.

"I love seeing the looks on people's faces when we deliver the balloons and balloon-sculptures. I can make anything to fit in with the bride and groom's plans."

Nesta's list of balloon creations includes a Red Arrows plane and a motorbike.

"The plane was about seven feet long and almost as wide," she said. "I own a people carrier and took all the seats out to make room for the delivery when I had finished.

"The motorbike was for somebody's birthday and I copied his real bike in colour and style. The balloons are so strong he could sit on it."

Nesta started her business from her front room in Farne Way after getting inspiration from a holiday in New York. "It was nearly Christmas and the shop windows were full of balloon designs," she said.

"And the Americans really know how to do things properly.

"They had snowmen, Santa Claus, reindeers you name it, it was there. I thought 'I want to do that' but at the time I could barely blow up a balloon with a pump."

Ten years later, however, and with a cluster of exams under her belt, Nesta is creating balloon sculpture masterpieces.

"I can't wait to find out who the bride will be," Nesta said.

"Then we can start discussing colours, fabrics and ideas."

Call Party Box on Swindon 853976.