I think this is a case for the feedback section over at the official forum and not a bug.
It works fine, it's just really hard
I just went through getting a couple together in the last couple of days. My active sim asked his intended out twice, neither date was very successful which surprised me because I don't usually have problems getting good dating outcomes. The next time they had a date, he was the one that was invited out. The romance bar was much easier to fill and the date ended with her agreeing to be his girlfriend and move in with him. In my case, with this particular couple, it was much easier to get them together with the active sim being the one who was invited out.
Did you not complete the goals when you invited the other Sims out ?
@crinrict, no I couldn't complete the goals on either one of the first two dates. For some reason, both of those sims kept getting the embarrassed buff and I just couldn't get the romance bar to advance much at all. They were good friends but suddenly kept having "awkward encounter" moods.
I don't usually have a problem meeting the goals. I don't think I'd had less than gold on a date in about 3 months.
Can you try a married couple to see if the problem still persists?
I've tested this over the weekend and had no troubles getting successful dates.
As @canelacaliente said, you should get messages on how the date is going.
Mine were not married and successful nonetheless except the last one when my Sim decided to flirt with someone else while on the date. The Date kinda didn't appreciate that :P
