Mary Ann & Darren in Los Angeles, CA

Attorneys Mary Ann James and Darren Hereford often joke that their courtship was more like a negotiation. The couple met at a mutual friend’s birthday party more than two years ago, but their timing was off (he had a girlfriend, and she was there to meet someone else). They reconnected at the same party a year later, and this time they exchanged numbers. The Bride Mary Ann James, 40 The Groom Darren Hereford, 39 The Date March 5 The two spent six months not really dating (“Darren enjoyed spending time with me but only wanted to be friends because he had just gotten out of a long relationship,” explains Mary Ann) before she decided to tell him that she was ready to be more than friends. It turns out that Darren was ready as well. They negotiated one date a week to start, “but I don’t think we ever saw each other less than four or five times a week,” says Mary Ann. Just over a year and a half later, Darren proposed.