In the battle to beat the coronavirus crisis, weddings are in lockdown and that is having a devastating effect on the region’s Love Town.Gretna has become the “wedding capital” virtually of the world courtesy of a 1754 Act of Parliament which outlawed marriages for under 21s in England.
That forced young couples to run away to Scotland and eloping caught on.Now the harsh reality for a community teeming with wedding venues, accommodation, restaurants and everything needed for the Big Day from hire cars to bridal boutiques, is that Covid-19 has called a halt.Temporarily it might be but that means hundreds of people have been furloughed on reduced salaries or lost their jobs and businesses are counting the costs.The pandemic is “ripping the