When a fellow writer suggested there was someone stopping by she should meet, Lauren Weisberger's instinct was to flee. As she turned to leave the Gramercy Park wine bar, “The Devil Wears Prada” author "saw this gorgeous guy walk by" and mused prophetically, "Wouldn't it be great if he was the friend?" After an engaging half-hour conversation with the writer she'd nearly dodged, Lauren knew she had to see Mike Cohen again.

At dinner two nights later, "the connection was so intense that I knew it was the chance to start something real," Mike recalls. They lived four blocks apart, but dated only weekly that spring. Mike wanted their relationship to "develop at its own pace."

By fall of the following year, Lauren anticipated a proposal. Still, Mike plotted to surprise her. He popped the question early one September morning and advised her to bundle up. Following a private sail around Manhattan, Lauren was anxious to return to their apartment to call family. "I convinced her to walk along the water only because I had just given her a very big diamond," Mike quips. She understood his insistence when they reached a riverside park, where family members awaited with balloons, flowers and lunch.

When publication of Lauren's third novel, “Chasing Harry Winston,” was bumped up to the spring of 2008, she knew she wanted to wed in the Caribbean before her promotional tour. "We took a total leap of faith," Lauren says of their decision to pounce on a cancellation and book Anguilla's Cap Juluca sight unseen.

"Someone was smiling down on this whole thing," reflects Mike, who was stunned when he called to engage the services of an officiant who was scheduled to be in the islands during their celebration and heard the voice of his long-retired childhood rabbi.

Their four-day celebration with 120 close friends and relatives was filled with laughter, joy and levity—just as they'd envisioned. Thursday's welcome party, Friday's barbecue, and Saturday's beach football game provided opportunities for guests to interact, and by the time the two exchanged vows Saturday evening, "everyone knew each other, and it was so relaxed," Lauren says. After cocktails and toasts, "it became a raucous party" as island bandleader Boss made the rounds with a microphone. "Karaoke is my biggest nightmare," Lauren says, but "it was the hit of the party. It was horrible and wonderful."

After a 6 a.m. photo shoot and goodbyes, the newlyweds relaxed briefly before jetting to New York for a night, then departing for a three-week honeymoon in Africa and the Maldives.

Mike accompanied Lauren for portions of her two-month book tour. They adore travel, but are equally content at home, where they pursue divergent literary careers from offices at opposite ends of their apartment. Lauren says they email, text and rendezvous for lunch, but "try not to open each other's doors when they're closed."

Still, they're "constantly interacting," says Mike, and their fiction is enlivened by that "something real" both instantly recognized. "We laugh. We're never bored. We manage every day to be interested in each other's lives," he says. "We're good influences on each other."

> Written by Kim Knox Beckius