As Kate Middleton marries Prince William in Westminster Abbey today, another Kate, 25-miles away in St Albans, is just as excited about tying the knot with her fiancé. Kate Bloomer and Jamie Wells are the winners of the Watford Observer Win A Wedding competition, and they are now looking forward to their wedding reception on October 22 at The Noke by Thistle Hotel, Chiswell Green.

They discovered they had won the competition when Watford Observer promotions manager Ellen Dean and the photographer arrived at their doorstep with a bottle of Champagne and a bouquet of flowers.

Kate says: “We were flabbergasted and speechless. We weren’t prepared for it at all.“ Kate had just returned from the gym and was preparing lunch for their two-year-old daughter Lauren.

“It was the world’s biggest shock. We were so not expecting it. I was still in my sleeping attire when Ellen and photographer knocked at the door,“ admits Jamie, a construction project manager for TSG.

They were taken off-guard because they had been expecting a telephone call – not a visit ‘paparazzi’ fashion “It was ten minutes past 12 and we had been told if we hadn’t heard by midday, then we hadn’t won. Kate was upset we hadn’t had the phonecall,“ explains Jamie who grew up in north London and went to Aldenham School.

After their initial shock, they opened the bottle of Champagne and celebrated.

“I was in a daze and shaking a bit,“ says Kate.

Kate and Jamie had beaten 20 other couples to win the dream wedding and honeymoon. The entrants task was to write 150 words on why they deserved to win the prize, then the Watford Observer readers voted by post, text and phonecall for the couple they thought should win the wedding. The five couples with the highest score were then invited to go before a panel of judges (Rebecca Healey from Champneys, Krystal Kilby wedding co-ordinator and Beccie Breeds meeting and events co-ordinator both at the Thistle Hotel and Lindi Bilgorri features editor at the Watford Observer) who had the final vote.

Kate and Jamie’s romance began four-and-half-years ago when Kate, 32, and a girlfriend went to Mokoko in St Albans for an evening out. Jamie and two mates walked into the bar and he spotted the two girls.

“They bought us cocktails. We then went to Batchwood nightclub to have a dance,“ recalls Kate. “It was love at first sight, that was it – we got together.“ Jamie, 34, chips in: “I knew I wanted to be with Kate from the moment I saw her“.

Six months later, Kate, who grew up in Chesterfield, Derbyshire and had moved to the area for work as a textile designer, and Jamie moved in together.

Jamie proposed to Kate when they were on holiday in Thailand visiting his sister and brother-in-law, who had managed to get them flights, but the proposal didn’t quite go as he had planned.

“It was the last night and I had decided how I was going to do it with a romantic walk by the sea shore, but Kate wanted to go to a night market to buy a pair of jeans. By the time she had returned, it was late and I had put Lauren to bed. I waited until the following morning. After breakfast we walked to the end of the resort where it was quiet and I proposed there.“ She, of course, said “yes”.

So why are the couple so perfect together?

“I just love everything about her, “ says Jamie.

“We just get on brilliantly. He is so down-to-earth and such good fun,“ adds Kate.

Winning the wedding means so much to the couple.

“It’s just the best news. We are desperate to get married and have been trying to save but we have no spare cash at the end of the month and we are saving for a house too. It would have been five years or more before we could have afforded it. It was like winning the lottery,“ says Jamie.