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 road heading west along the south coast of Scotland from Gretna. Its eastern terminus at Gretna was originally the A74, but this was changed to a junction with the A74(M). The A75 runs past Eastriggs, Annan, Dumfries, Castle Douglas, Gatehouse of Fleet, Newton Stewart and Glenluce before ending in the west at Stranraer. Much of the local economy is driven by the marriage industry, where by some accounts, as many as one of every six Scottish weddings takes place in Gretna / Gretna Green. Most marriages take place in Gretna itself, at the Register office, the Anvil Hall, or in