Her wedding day encompassed all that Carla Costado, 26, had ever dreamt of: the romantic Vera Wang dress, the champagne toasts, and the promise of a luxurious honeymoon cruising the Maldives with her groom, Anthony Firenze, 28.

Ah yes ... Anthony. He may have been handsome in his black Hugo Boss tuxedo, but at least some of the guests assembled at the church in Sydney last November may have harboured doubts. After all, this was the man who, just a few months earlier, Carla was pillorying as the "Mr Right who turned out to be Mr (oh-so-very) Wrong". They'd tried commitment once and failed, living together for six months in 2006 before splitting up, only to reunite two years later. Now, here they were: "Till death do us part."

Then again, they aren't the only couple that has recycled their relationship in a second-chance bid to find everlasting bliss. Flip through the pages of any celebrity magazine and it seems half of Hollywood has bounced back to a former flame. And if Anthony and Carla's reunion raised eyebrows, Tinseltown is even more scathing. When Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson were spotted cosying up in France last February, one "friend" observed: "Neither of them has changed. Why should it work this time round?"

Certainly, there are success stories. Take Russell Crowe and Danielle Spencer, who started while filming the 1990 film The Crossing, but split five years later when Crowe moved to Hollywood (where he was linked to Meg Ryan, among others). Spencer was Crowe's platonic date in 2001 when he won the best actor Oscar for his role in Gladiator. "I leant down and said: 'This is because you're here,'" Crowe confided later. "It was just after that that we started seeing each other again." A marriage and two sons later, it's clear this relationship was worth a second look.

The same can't be said for serial recyclers John Mayer and Jennifer Aniston. Given their latest break-up was reportedly thanks to Mayer's excessive use of Twitter, it may still turn out to be a mere pothole in the path to true love.

While cynics might argue breaking up and making up is a blatant publicity grab, there's evidence the rest of us are thinking twice about past partners, too. Thanks to social networking sites like Facebook, it's easier than ever to rekindle old flames, but our willingness to start over points to a generational change, says demographer Bernard Salt. "If you think that baby boomers in the 1970s married in their early 20s, there wasn't much time for considering if they had the right partner or not. But now, the dating phase of life is about 10 years, which gives a lot of 'dwell time' - greater opportunity for multiple relationships."

For some, early relationships might have held more promise than we'd thought. In our early 20s, we're more demanding - and think we have plenty of time to find Mr Perfect. As we get older, "we're not so idealistic and we question if the reasons for breaking up with our partner were really all that valid," says Sydney psychologist Dina McMillan.

Read more about why some people are going back for another relationship round in this month's marie claire.