Karen and Gavin pictured with Julie Cobbe, SimplyWeddings.com

On Friday next, Karen from the Tullow Road, Carlow, and her fiancé Gavin Wilson from Dublin will know if they have won the top prize in a competition for an all inclusive wedding package worth €65,0000.

Karen and Gavin have made it through to the final three couples and were interviewed on TV3's Ireland AM programme on Tuesday morning. On Thursday they will be appealing to the people of Carlow for support when the voting lines are open.

'We got engaged in September and were planning to get married in June anyway' Karen told the Nationalist. 'We wanted to get married in Bennekerry Church and we actually have the Seven Oaks provisionally booked.'

However, should fate intervene or failing that, the voting public, Karen and Gavin will be married on Midsummer's Day, June 21st and their reception will be held in The K-Club in Co. Kildare.

The prize, which was sponsored by Weddings Irish Style magazine in conjunction with SimplyWeddings.com, includes a reception for 100 guests in the K-Club, wedding bands, champagne and wine reception on arrival at the K-Club, photography by award winning photographer John Ryan and videography by Richard Gill.

Karen, who is the daughter of Mark and Margaret Kerrigan, met Gavin at a training day at work in 2002. They are both civil servants at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

'We had discussed getting married and picking out a ring but one day in September, Gavin spotted a ring while on his own and bought it. We went out for dinner that night to an Italian restaurant and he proposed' Karen confided.

As to her thoughts on the competition, she said: 'When we entered we didn't realise it would be on TV but its turning out great. Everyone is getting really excited about it and we're getting great support at work'

'If we don't win we don't mind as we still have our own wedding planned' she says.