COUPLES have been flitting to Gretna Green to get married since 1710 with almost 3,500 lovebirds tying the knot every year.
But a recent booking was pretty unique, even for the world-famous venue.
Three couples who have been friends for more than a decade all snuck off to get hitched at the village’s Famous Blacksmith Shop on May 13.
Pals Sharron and David Letts, Kate and Jon Redshaw and Claire and Craig Gorman told their loved ones they were going on a camping trip before turning up at Gretna Green instead.
They bagged wedding dresses from eBay and wedding flowers at the nearest Tesco before acting as witnesses and photographers for each other’s ceremonies.
The brides also bought T-shirts for their new husbands to wear – all with the slogan “under new management” on the front.
Afterwards, the couples – from Leicestershire – headed off in separate campervans for a honeymoon tour of the Scottish Borders.
Sharron, 55, told the Sunday Post: “All our partners were longstanding and so we hit on an idea to get hitched in a runaway wedding at a fraction of the cost of what we all might have spent if we had been in our 20s.”
The pharmaceutical clerk added: “Two of our dresses were from eBay and another from a local shop, all bought on the quiet, and secretly from our families.
“At one point we were in Tesco in our wedding dresses buying our bouquets.”
Claire, 49, who works with Sharron, added: “We all wanted to get our affairs in order and make it legal now that we had been with our partners for a while.
“One of us joked that we should run away and the idea took off from there.”
Gretna Green Famous Blacksmiths Shop shared a happy snap of the triple wedding on their Facebook page.
They said: “Claire and Craig, Kate and John, and Sharron and David all got married yesterday.
“But there’s more to the story —they were each other’s witnesses!
“After being friends for 10 years, they decided to elope to Gretna Green together as a joke.
“It turned out to be the cutest thing in the world.
“They supported each other and took photos during the ceremonies. True friendship goals!”
