New Zealand’s favourite infomercial queen Suzanne Paul has been trying to get married for the past couple of years, but the two times she planned her nuptials, Covid lockdowns got in the way.
Finally, she and partner Patrick Kuhtze decided that the only thing to do was to run away.
An elopement with all the old-fashioned trimmings of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was called for and a marriage ceremony at the infamous Gretna Green in Scotland was decided upon.
“Patrick said one day, ‘I can’t plan all this again, we should just run away and get married,’” says Suzanne. “Some friends had run away and got married in Las Vegas, but Patrick didn’t think that was us. Then it dawned on me – Gretna Green!”
Patrick had not heard of the village, which attracted British couples who were unable to get married under the age of 21 without parental consent after the Clandestine Marriages Act was passed in 1753. In Scotland, it
