Weddings delayed by the pandemic that finally went ahead last year helped Dumfries and Galloway Council rake in nearly £1.4m.
Wedding bells ringing also meant tills were ringing for the local authority, with ceremonies being booked out at Gretna and income almost doubling compared to the previous year.
Earnings from the processing of marriage and civil partnership registrations, along with birth and death registrations, totalled £1,388,026 in 2021/22.
In 2020/21, when the region was largely in lockdown and many weddings had to be cancelled, the council earned £722,904 from marriage, birth and death registrations.
The wedding resurgence was highlighted at the council’s communities committee last week where councillors were assessing the budget for neighbourhood services last year.
A report tabled at the meeting reads: “Overall neighbourhood services has returned an underspend of £169,000, primarily due to the recovery of income levels within registrars.
“This reflects a significant increase in the number of marriage registrations which were undertaken at Gretna during 2021/22, reflecting the level of weddings that were postponed during the pandemic.
“In addition, the service staff vacancies, especially in customer services and arts and museums, which contributed to this position.”
Gretna Green is still the wedding capital of Britain, averaging more than 3,500 of them in a typical year.
Gretna’s wedding industry supports hundreds of jobs and, before the pandemic, provided nearly £37m a year to the region’s economy.
The Gretna registration district – which also includes Gretna Green and Kirkpatrick Fleming – is Scotland’s marriage mecca accounting for 12 per cent of all weddings in the country.
All the legal paperwork for every wedding in Gretna parish is handled by the registration team which also conducts civil marriages and partnerships in its two marriage rooms – Annandale Suite and Solway Suite.
Gretna Green cemented its place in history in 1754, when a strict marriage act in England came into force, meaning no one under 21 could marry without parental consent.
Young lovers crossed over the border as the rules were more relaxed in Scotland, and arrived at Gretna Green, home to an enterprising blacksmith who reinvented himself as an “anvil priest” marrying couples in his blacksmith shop for a small fee.
