Amy & Steve in Carlsbad, CA

After one of Amy’s friends “double-dog-dared” her to chat up any random cute guy at a local bar, her tap on the shoulder led to a great first date with Steve. They went on to date on and off (“Mostly off,” Amy admits) for eight years before finally calling it quits for good -- or so they thought. After two years of not having seen or spoken to each other, they finally reconnected and realized that maybe it was time to really give things a shot. The Bride Amy Sorkin, 40, copywriter and journalist The Groom Steve Kurland, 41, writer and feature producer The Date August 19 Four-and-a-half years later, Amy and Steve had decided to get married but Steve hadn’t yet proposed. Steve suggested a weekend away, and Amy instantly knew what was up -- though she didn’t have any idea exactly how he’d pop the question. The couple flew north to San Francisco, then went on to a bed and breakfast in Napa Valley. The second night there, they went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, and Steve said, “Amy, I want to ask you something.” “I started thinking how unlike Steve it would be to propose in a restaurant, but I also thought, well, maybe this is the moment,” Amy remembers. “Then he asked me about something totally random -- he was just faking me out!” They went back to their cottage, and Steve asked Amy to marry him over homemade desserts and a bottle of wine -- “it was the most romantic setting,” Amy says. The couple soon began planning a wedding near Amy’s hometown of San Diego.