Mansfield Chad's last 'Bride of the Year' celebrates 25th wedding anniversary

And while it would be the last year of the competition, it was just the beginning for Susan and her husband Simon who are still going strong a quarter of a century later.

Susan and Simon Bowskill got married at St Edmunds Church in Mansfield Woodhouse in August 1995, a year after Sue won the paper’s annual ‘Bride of the Year’ competition.

As well as being presented with a vase-like trophy on a stage in Mansfield, there were lots of other perks to being ‘Bride of the Year’, including money off a wedding photographer and 50 per cent off clothing hire from Greenwoods Menswear.

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Sue, who was 22 at the time of the win, said: “I can remember going for an interview for the competition, I found the old paperwork actually, and there were six finalists originally and I didn’t know who they were but I still have the old newspaper cuttings.

"After the interview we went back to the old leisure centre, where the Tesco is now in Mansfield, and it was a big do – a sort of wedding fayre.

"There were all the bubbles, balloons, photographers, and they had this announcement on the stage that I had won and they stuck a tiara on me and we had a photograph taken.”

Sue, who works for the NHS, and Simon, who works for the council, were offered numerous discounts from companies across Nottinghamshire on the back of the win, helping them to plan the wedding for the following year.

Sue said: "We had a big white wedding.

"It was so many pounds off the photographer, but in the end we didn’t use that photographer anyway.

"We did have the 50 per cent off the car, we had a beautiful car – a vintage Rolls Royce.”

Sue was also presented with the trophy, which can be seen on the picture featured in this article, taken from a newspaper snippet from the time that her mum has kept.

"I have still got that on display, actually,” Sue said.

"I am not a hoarder but I keep things that are sentimental.”

The couple still live in Mansfield Woodhouse and have two sons aged 19 and 17.

They will celebrate their silver wedding anniversary on August 12 of this year, but their celebration plans have been put on hold by coronavirus.

Sue said: "The two of us had booked to go to Las Vegas to do the champagne tour in the Grand Canyon but it can’t be, can it?

“We are just going out for tea somewhere local, keep it low-key.

“We would like to do the celebrations we have planned, but maybe not for a while.”

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The wedding did not only signify marriage between Simon and Sue, it was also the beginning of their ‘forever home’ as they moved out for the first time on the night of the wedding – and they have never looked back.

Sue said: "We still live in the same house in Mansfield Woodhouse that we bought 25 years ago

“We didn’t live together so when we got in the cars after the wedding we officially left home and moved in together that night.

“We are just finishing the third extension so it was meant to be our forever home.”