In a Woman’s Day exclusive, the gorgeous television star tells Clare Rigden she can’t wait to walk down the aisle with her fiancé, Matt Kingston.

It has been an enormous year for Winners & Losers star Melanie Vallejo. A hit series, a move from Sydney to Melbourne to work on it, an engagement, and soon, the best of all – her wedding.

No wonder her head is spinning! “To say it’s been big is an understatement,” says Mel, 31, laughing at what has taken place. “It’s been a huge year and things are really great. But, yeah, sometimes it’s weird when I stop and actually think about it all.”

That’s not something Mel, who plays Sophie Wong on the hit Seven Network drama, has had a lot of time to do lately. Currently on a production break, she’s well and truly preoccupied – organising her wedding to her fiancé of a year, New Zealand-born advertising planner Matt Kingston.

“We’ve been together about two years, so it’s not a huge amount of time,” she says, looking over at Matt, seated beside her on the couch. “It’s funny, because when people say to us, ‘How long have you two been together?’ and I say, ‘Two years,’ it doesn’t sound like long. But from very early on, we recognised there was something more.”

By May last year, Matt, 29, knew it was time to think about making things official. He had it all planned – a romantic weekend in Melbourne, dinner and champagne, and then the big question. However, proposing to Mel was never going to be easy. First of all, he had to persuade her he wasn’t just having a laugh!