custom package dependencies not installing

["William Francis" <wfrancis@gmail.com>]

I have a binary style package that I've created. The control file has
a large number of Depends entries in it which all install fine by
themselves. When I attempt to install the package (via dpkg -i) , it
lists all of the Depends and it helpfully tells me that they are not
installed (which is true)  like so and just returns me to a prompt:

ash036:/tmp# dpkg -i xxxx-webserver-apps-0.0.1-10.deb
Selecting previously deselected package xxxx-webserver-apps.
(Reading database ... 18443 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking xxxx-webserver-apps (from xxxx-webserver-apps-0.0.1-10.deb) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of xxxx-webserver-apps:
 xxxx-webserver-apps depends on php-date (>= 1.4.7); however:
  Package php-date is not installed.
 xxxx-webserver-apps depends on php-file-mogile (>= 0.0.2); however:
  Package php-file-mogile is not installed.

<snip - long list of more dependencies>

dpkg: error processing xxxx-webserver-apps (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 xxxx-webserver-apps


however, if I immediately follow this up with

apt-get -f install

all dependencies (in my repo) and the original .deb file (it's not yet
in my repo) install just fine and everything works. No packages report
any errors at all.

I admit this is my first custom .deb project but I think I've done
everything correctly but I must be missing something that's causing
the missing dependencies to install?

thanks,

Will