Zach Starr and Sascha Clark

• Met: October 2000
• Engaged: December 25, 2003
• Wedding Date: July 10, 2005

Zach Starr and Sascha Clark look like the perfect San Diego couple. He’s a surfer dude. She’s the pretty girl next door. You’d never guess they met in Texas.

“Zach was my roommate’s boyfriend’s best friend,” Miss Clark, 26, explains on an October afternoon in La Jolla. “We were going to school at St. Phillip’s College in San Antonio.”

“A bunch of us went out to play paintball,” Mr. Starr, 24, picks up the thread. “I noticed Sascha right away. But she had a boyfriend.” Mr. Starr pauses. “I figured only one relationship in your lifetime ever really works out. So I thought, ‘I’ll be patient.’”

Mr. Starr’s patience paid off. “We first saw each other in October 2000,” he continues. “The next spring, I heard Sascha had broken up with her boyfriend. I went out to dinner with a bunch of my friends. Afterward, we went to the place where Sascha worked, Jack’s Patio Bar. I asked her for her number.”

“I was a waitress,” Miss Clark says. “Guys were always asking for my number. Zach was the only one I ever gave it out to.”

The number exchange occurred on a Friday. Mr. Starr called Miss Clark on Monday. He asked her out to dinner. She said yes. “We went to a Cajun restaurant and then to Dave and Buster’s,” Miss Clark remembers. “We hit it off right away.”

“It was all fun,” Mr. Starr agrees. “We found out we both have the same favorite band — 311. We both love movies. We both love running. We exercise a lot together.”

“And we both really love dogs,” Miss Clark adds. “We have a Corgi mix that I bought Zach for Christmas last year. And we just got a purebred Husky three months ago.”

Since that first date on July 3, 2001, the couple has seen each other almost every day. “I said, ‘I love you’ first,” Mr. Starr confesses.

“It was pretty quick,” Miss Clark confirms.

“July 14. We were watching Fight Club at home.”

Mr. Starr waited a while longer before he proposed. On Christmas Eve of last year, he popped the question. “It was kind of a surprise,” Miss Clark says. “We had looked at rings in November. That was a total surprise. One day, Zach said, ‘Let’s go look at rings.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ We went to the mall and looked at about five or six jewelry stores. At every store, I picked out my favorite ring. But we didn’t buy a ring, and I didn’t know when he was going to propose.”

“I figured Christmas is the most special day of the year,” Mr. Starr explains. “We stayed up until midnight on Christmas Eve. We were at my parents’ house in Texas. I had turned out all the lights except the lights on the Christmas tree. I got down on one knee and said, ‘I love you with all of my heart. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. You complete me.’”

Miss Clark said yes and accepted a large center solitaire set in white gold surrounded by two side diamonds and a row of baguettes.

Miss Clark, who had finished her studies at St. Phillip’s, became a respiratory therapist. A traveling assignment brought the couple to San Diego. “I’m working at Kaiser Permanente for another month. Then we’re moving to Los Angeles where I’ll be at UCLA Medical Center.”

The impending move north suits Mr. Starr. “I want to be an actor,” he says. “In San Antonio, I did four or five commercials and some print work. I haven’t been able to get any acting work here in San Diego, but I hope to in L.A.”

“If we can afford it, we want to get married in Maui,” Miss Clark adds. “Barefoot on the beach. We want something really tropical with just immediate family and close friends. And lots of fresh flowers. You know, the leis and the flower wreaths.”

Beyond the wedding, Mr. Starr and Miss Clark have big plans. “Once Zach’s acting career takes off,” Miss Clark says, “I want to go back to school and get my Ph.D. I want to teach respi- ratory therapy at the college level. And we want to have at least one kid.”