BRIDE OF THE YEAR: THIS year's couple are a thoroughly modern pairing.

It will be the first time the Evening Advertiser Bride of the Year and her groom will be joined in matrimony in a civil ceremony at Old Town's Goddard Arms Hotel on August 3.

Katrina Bennett, 25, and David McCarron, 27, were chosen from hundreds of young couples hoping to win the £7,000 worth of prizes.

Katrina got the ball rolling with an unusual entry package.

She said: "I wanted to make it stand out from the others, so I did it all up like a wedding parcel.

"I used wedding paper and put it in a silver folder and inside it I had put lots of confetti as well. Although I don't know if the person receiving it appreciated that!"

She and David, met in a bar four years ago in Tenerife and their eyes met across a crowded bar.

The couple are currently living in Old Town, and are glad to be living in the same place at long last.

She said: "I was working in Preston, and got transferred to Brighton, and Dave moved from Swindon to Reading to be closer to me."

Eventually the couple settled in Swindon in the Old Town.

She said: "It was a long distance relationship for a long time! It is always hard, you just have to make more of an effort."