Norwich bride-to-be starring in reality TV show

Sam EmanuelA Norwich bride-to-be is to appear on a new reality television show competing to win a dream wedding.Sam Emanuel

A Norwich bride-to-be is to appear on a new reality television show competing to win a dream wedding.

Kerry Freeman, 37, was picked from hundreds of applicants as one of ten finalists for the 11-part show, Brides on a Bus, in which the mother-of-one, from Thorpe Marriot, will join nine other brides-to-be to travel the length and breadth of the country on a traditional double-decker bus to compete in challenges to win a wedding in Gretna Green.

The challenges will include sheep-herding in Devon, cheese wrapping in Somerset and playing football with a Premiership player in Blackburn, and the women will be voting each other off the bus and out of the competition throughout the series.

The wedding prize will include a service at Anvil Hall, a reception and accommodation at the Gretna Chase Hotel, the bride and groom's outfits, the bridesmaids' dresses, jewellery, cakes, flowers, a DJ and Rolls Royce transport.

Ms Freeman, who has a two-year-old son called Harrison, will also be appearing with five of the other brides live on ITV's This Morning on February 12.

'I'm getting quite nervous,' she said. 'I am going to have to think carefully before I speak when I'm on there because I don't want to say anything stupid like I did when they were filming Brides on a Bus - they interviewed you on camera all the time and by the end you didn't really care what you said.

'One day I had this kiss curl on my forehead and they asked what it was about on camera, and I started saying that rhyme 'there was a little girl...'. I think the others liked me because I was chatty and friendly. At the beginning I said to them that I wanted to clarify I was marrying a man, as I was the only one with short hair and I thought they might think I was marrying a woman! They all rolled about laughing.

'I had such a good week on the bus that I almost forgot about the wedding! I was chosen because I had been on maternity leave for a year and I just got bored and applied for loads of different things on television, and thought I wouldn't get on any of them, but then I got a call and was so pleased.'

Her fianc�e is Stephen Kemp, a 44-year-old financial advisor. She said: 'He's not so up for that kind of stuff as me, so he was more like 'oh go on then'. But he got more excited as it came nearer the programme. I think he wanted to do the wedding more our way than have the sort of wedding that I was competing for.'

The show is being presented by television star David Van Day, who appeared most recently on series eight of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here. He said: 'As the saying goes there are no free lunches and there certainly are no free weddings either, as these girls will have to fight to the end to win a wedding in Gretna Green.'

The programme will be shown on Sky's Wedding TV channel, number 266, at 10pm every Monday from February 15.

Are you set to appear on television? Call reporter Sam Emanuel on 01603 772438 or email sam.emanuel@archant.co.uk.