Advice from married / engaged couples

For most of the last 8 years I've had the privilege of serving as the Executive Secretary in 4 different wards, and that has given me the opportunity as engaged couples have called me to schedule a wedding recommend interview to ask them "I would love to be in your place, and I'm not - what have you done to get to where you are?".

I've noticed common patterns in their responses and recently offered to put together a presentation on consistent themes I've heard in their responses. To prepare for the presentation, I reached out to about 150 members of my ward who have gotten married in the last few years and asked them to give me written answers to two questions:

1. For those of our members who aren't currently dating anyone exclusively, what do you think the top 2 or 3 things people should do to MEET someone who has the potential to be a future spouse (or alternatively recognize potential in people they've already met)

2. And once two people are dating each other, what are the 2 or 3 things dating couples should do that will make it most likely they will end up getting married (assuming of course they're a good fit for each other - if a terrible fit I guess the question would be what are the things they should do to realize they're a bad fit?)

I received dozens of interesting responses, and so I've posted them here. The only change I've made is removing names so they will be anonymous. I hope you enjoy reading their responses!