Suzanne's Scottish 'I dos' 'WHY WE HAD TO EL OPE'

The wedding-weary star got her glow back by becoming a runaway bride!

- Wendyl Nissen

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 was still legal to marry without parental consent and also happened to be the fi rst village in Scotland on the road from London.

But running away to Gretna Green to get married was not quite as easy as it was for Lydia Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (who never actually made it to Gretna Green).

“You can’t just turn up there now and say, ‘Here we are!’” explains Suzanne.

“The paperwork took several months and Patrick had to do more than me, not being born in the United Kingdom. He ended up having to go twice to immigration here and apply for a fi ancé’s permit.”

Meanwhile, Suzanne had to deal with all her different names.