Why thousands of couples are choosing Scotland to say 'I do'

Hayden and Savannah had never set foot in Scotland before they decided it was the perfect place to get married last May.

The couple, from Pennsylvania in the USA, wanted a destination wedding that would take their family and friends on an adventure with them.

They considered locations across Europe, before deciding on Scotland after Savannah saw photographs of a castle wedding online.

"I think it was on Pinterest," she said. "Somebody got married in a castle and I was like, 'Oh, I have to do that'."

The pair are far from alone in seeing Scotland as the ultimate romantic destination.

Nearly a quarter of all marriages registered in Scotland last year involved couples who did not live in the country.

Figures from National Records of Scotland show that 6,596 of the 27,191 weddings recorded in 2025 involved neither partner being a Scottish resident.

But what is it about the country that persuades these couples to travel hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles to get married here?

Nowhere attracts more visiting couples than Gretna Green.

Of the 6,596 marriages involving non-Scottish residents last year, 3,492 took place in the Dumfries and Galloway town, meaning it alone accounted for more than half of Scotland's destination weddings.

The town's association with romance dates back to 1754, when changes to marriage laws in England prompted young runaway couples to cross the border into Scotland, where they could marry without needing parental consent.

More than 250 years later, it remains one of the world's best-known wedding destinations.

It was this reputation that appealed to Patryk and Angelika, both 27, who travelled from north-west England to tie the knot there.

The couple said Scotland had long been woven into their relationship.

They first met when they were 15, when Patryk's parents moved to England from Poland, and one of the first things they bonded over was the 1996 movie Loch Ness.

Years later, that shared childhood favourite took on new significance when Patryk proposed on its shores.

Their connection to Scotland first started on a road trip in 2021, and they have regularly returned to explore the Highlands and celebrate their anniversaries in Edinburgh.

This year alone, they have travelled north of the border every two months.

So Scotland felt like the natural place to say "I do", they said.

Both Angelika and Patryk are history lovers and said they were drawn to the centuries-old tradition of a Gretna wedding.

"It meant something to us being part of that heritage." Angelika said.

Patryk said that his favourite memory was watching his bride walk down the aisle to the sound of Flower of Scotland played on the bagpipes.

"That sort of music just creates such a whimsical and romantic atmosphere that really can't be recreated in many countries outside of Scotland," Angelika said.

Those moments left a lasting impression on their families who had travelled from Poland.

"They hadn't really experienced anything like that before," she said.

The appeal was not just Gretna's history, Angelika said.

Less than an hour after getting marries, the couple found themselves surrounded by dramatic scenery for their wedding photographs.

"There's not a lot of places in the world where you can do that," she said.

Although neither bride nor groom is Scottish, both say they feel a deep connection to the country.

"It's not home, but it feels like a home away from home," Angelika said.

Chihon, from Chile, and Anna Maria, from Moldova, came to Scotland to study, but the country quickly became the backdrop to their love story.

The couple first met in 2018 through a dance society at the University of Edinburgh, when Anna Maria was on an Erasmus exchange and Chihon was completing his postgraduate studies.

They they spent years as friends, and it was not until Anna Maria returned to Edinburgh in 2024 that their relationship became something more.

And their romance blossomed in the same place their friendship had years earlier.

"Everything happened again on the dance floor," Anna Maria said.

Just four months after getting engaged, the pair walked down the aisle on the Isle of Arran.

The couple said they "fell in love" with the island at first sight, due to it having the "complete scenery of Scotland".

"You feel that you're in a magical place", said Chihon. "It's very unique."

The couple said Scotland felt like the natural choice.

"We're from two different continents," Chihon said. "Scotland is where we met and where we built our life together."

Their wedding brought together family and friends from across the world, with parts of the ceremony translated live into Spanish and Russian for relatives travelling from Chile and Moldova.

Chihon said friends from all over the world joined the couple for their celebrations.

The highlights of the night included a traditional ceilidh and a final group karaoke singalong of Sunshine on Leith, led by their Scottish wedding guests.

While some of their international guests were unfamiliar with Scottish wedding traditions, that did little to dampen their enthusiasm.

"We had people saying, 'We have no idea what's going on, but we're going to join in'," Chihon said.

He said Scotland would always hold a special place in their lives.

"Like Robbie Burns said, 'my heart's in the Highlands wherever I go'," he said.

"I think Scotland will be with us forever. I couldn't be more grateful. It was already special to me before, but now that I'm married to the woman of my dreams, it's like I owe everything to Scotland."

The same experience was echoed by Hayden and Savannah.

Despite arriving in Scotland just two days before their wedding, the couple said the country's wedding industry made planning from abroad remarkably straightforward.

They chose a castle near Edinburgh, and were drawn not only by the scenery but also by the sense of history they felt was harder to find back home.

"Scotland has this combination of this lovely countryside beauty and history," Savannah said.

"You don't get a lot of the historical venues like you do here, in the United States."

The couple also wove Scottish traditions into their ceremony, taking part in a Celtic handfasting ritual, using pieces of fabric provided by both of their grandmothers.

They said an important part of their decision was the chance to share the experience with loved ones.

"We wanted to go somewhere that would take our whole family on an adventure with us," Hayden said.

Many of their guests turned the wedding into a longer holiday, extending their stays to explore Scotland and even joining the couple on their honeymoon in the Highlands afterwards.

Looking back, the newlyweds say Scotland exceeded every expectation.

Savannah said: "Scotland is like nothing we've ever seen before. We were just blown away by how beautiful everything was."