In slang terms a “Gretna Green” is a location where a couple can easily get married–usually just about immediately upon arrival. Often the location is “right across” a political border with restrictions and requirement that are fairly lax.
While there was a literal Gretna Green in Scotland, the requirements there have changed over the years and “immediate” marriages appear to no longer be possible.
But if you cannot find your ancestral couple’s marriage record in the location where they lived, check and see where the nearest Gretna Green was. That’s where they may have gone.
Or they may have just gone three counties over where no one knew their parents.
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My mother’s family has lived in the center of North Carolina for over 200 years. It’s interesting to note, from the late 1800’s until roughly World War II, how many of them were married in Danville, VA. Almost inevitably, they reported their ages to be greater than they actually were on their applications for marriage licenses. I only ever heard of one of those “under-age” marriages which was dissolved by action of the bride’s parents upon return of the couple to North Carolina. Danville was a railroad hub, and was easily reached by auto after hard-surface roads were built, so that accounts at least partly for that destination of choice to elope. I’ve often wondered just how the laws of Virginia and Danville differed in regard to marriage from those of the Tarheel State.