MOST twins are close but one pair of sisters are so inseparable that they live next door and have even found the ‘same’ man to marry.
Diane and Darlene Sanders, 53, from Texas, do everything together including getting married with the pair exchanging vows side by side.
While a joint ceremony might be a little unusual for some, for the Sanders sisters it was a no brainer.
Speaking to Fabulous, Diane says: “Darlene and I had done everything together, from the moment we were born.
“And our wedding day wasn’t going to be any different.
“We both wanted to get married on the same day, standing by each others’ sides…as well as our husbands.”
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There was no pushback from their husbands either with twins Craig and Mark happy to share their wedding day.
“Craig and Mark knew exactly how we felt – and understood our bond completely – because they were identical twins too,” Diana says.
The sisters met the twin brothers in their 20s while attending a festival dedicated to twins.
“We’ve always had the same tastes growing up…whether it being food, clothes and margaritas,” Diane says.
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“And we had the same taste in men too.
“It was August 1998 when we went to the annual twins festival in Twinsburg, Ohio.
“We were 27 and we were standing at the hotel bar, when a tall dark haired man introduced himself.
“It was Mark, he had us both in stitches.
“We both thought he was nice but there was one problem, there were two of us, and only one of him.
“Luckily Mark informed us that he was also attending the twin convention with his brother Craig.
When people saw us out and about as a foursome, they do more than a double take!
“Thank goodness for that – it would have been awful if Darlene and I had both liked him – we couldn’t have split him in two!
“Even though they looked identical, just like us, there was more of a spark between Mark and Darlene – and I really hit it off with Craig, I was convinced he was better looking and luckily they felt the same.
“When people saw us out and about as a foursome, they do more than a double take! They can’t believe their eyes.
“They were seeing double twice over.”
While the sister worked as legal secretaries for a firm in Missouri and the brothers as web designers in Texas the two couples didn’t let the distance get in the way.
“We had double dates together and even went on holiday as a foursome to Florida the following year,” says Diane.
“They both surprised us with engagement rings and asked us to marry them, it was amazing.
“They knew how close we were and they’d had matching engagement rings made, which had been cut from the same diamond even.
“You couldn’t get much more matching than that.”
The two couples planned their joint wedding for November that year.
Amd while having two brides organising a wedding may have resulted in arguments for some, for Diane and Darlene it worked seamlessly.
Diane says: “It made things much easier too, having two pairs of hands to get things organised, rather than just doing it myself.
“We’ve always had the same taste in everything, so it was so easy to organise and we didn’t fall out over anything.
“We both bought the same dress – we had fallen in love luckily with the same one – and our dad walked us both down the aisle at the same time, to where Mark and Craig were waiting for us.”
And the couples’ close bond didn’t stop after their ‘I dos.’
“After our weddings we bought houses next door to each other,” Diane says.
“It was great, but we could be even closer so we took out the garden fence that divided the two plots, and then we had one big garden that we could all share together.
We both bought the same dress and our dad walked us both down the aisle at the same time
“I have never been separated from Darlene, so this was a perfect solution. We were always nipping around to each other.”
The only time that the sisters’ lives didn’t perfectly align was when it came to starting a family.
“Darlene was desperate to be a mum straight away, but Craig and I wanted to wait a while," Diane says.
“But fate intervened when I discovered I was pregnant.
“Darlene had just suffered a miscarriage, so I felt so guilty.”
The pregnancy came with yet another double surprise for Diane and Craig.
She explains: “I was lying on the scanning table about to have my first scan, and Craig and I told the doctor that we were both twins – and our twin siblings had married each other too.
“She couldn’t believe it.
“She ran the scanner over my tummy, and looked at the screen before telling us it was twins.
“We thought she was joking at first, but she pointed at the screen and sure enough there were two little heartbeats on the screen.
“We couldn’t believe it. It was more than a one in a million to one chance that an identical twin would get pregnant with identical twins.
“Darlene had always said she wanted to get pregnant with twins but I hadn’t agreed with her as I hadn’t wanted them to be compared to one another.
“But fate had other ideas, and instead it was me looking down at two newborn babies in my arms, not Darlene.”
Darlene got pregnant six months after Diane had given birth to Brady and Colby, now 22, with Darlene giving birth to her daughter Reagan, now 21, and then her second daughter Landry, 20, a year after that.
Two years later Diane and Craig welcomed their third son Holden, now 17.
“It was lovely to have all our children so close together, and they have been incredibly close too, growing up,” Diane says.
“They always hang out together and they went to school together too. It has been like one big extended family.”
Now in their 50s, the sisters remain closer than ever.
“Darlene and I feel so lucky to have each other by our sides,” says Diane.
“We still both work as legal secretaries, although not for the same firm anymore. But we still drive to work together.
“The only time we have ever been apart is when we were six years old and Darlene suffered a convulsion in the classroom. I was terrified. She had to be taken to hospital for a couple of weeks to be checked over, and I was lost without her by my side.
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“It was so traumatic seeing her drop to the floor in front of me like that. Since then we have never left each other’s sides, but for us, thats the best thing about being a twin.
“We always have a best friend – and we will be friends for life.”
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