Gretna Green thousands of weddings. Today there are several wedding venues in and around Gretna Green, from former churches to purpose-built chapels. The services at all the venues are always performed over an iconic blacksmith's anvil. Gretna Green endures as one of the world's most popular wedding venues, and thousands of couples from around the world come to be married 'over the anvil' in Gretna Green. In common law, a "Gretna Green marriage" came to mean, in general, a marriage transacted in a jurisdiction that was not the residence of the parties being married, to avoid restrictions or procedures imposed by the
Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway Gretna () is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Because they are near the Anglo-Scottish border, nearby Gretna Green, and to a lesser extent Gretna, are traditionally associated with eloping English couples because of the more liberal marriage provisions in Scots law compared to English law. "Gretna" has become a term for a place for quick, easy marriages because of this. Gretna is part of the historic county of Dumfriesshire. Gretna means "(place at the) gravelly hill", from Old English "greot" "grit" (in the dative form greoten (which is where the -n comes from) and