It was my big day but as I walked down the aisle, two identical grooms were waiting. What was going on? By Diane Sanders, 52
I overheard a colleague talking to my boss and I had to stifle a laugh.
‘Er… did a new person start who looks just like Diane?’ my colleague asked. ‘Because I just saw a girl in the lift who looks the spit of her!’
My boss started to explain.
The new person was my sister Darlene.
But she was more than my sister, she was my identical twin.
I worked as a legal secretary, and now Darlene had got a job at the same company — also as a legal secretary.
Darlene worked on a different floor.
But, at first, when colleagues saw either of us, they did a double take.
Darlene and I were aged 17, but it had been the same since we were born.
Darlene was 45 minutes older than me.
As newborns, amazingly our mum Sharon, dad Dave and older sister Tina could instinctively tell us apart.
But other people struggled.
Mum loved to dress us in matching outfits, and strangers stared at our identical blonde pigtails and matching dimples.
Darlene was outgoing, while I was the shy one.
But aged eight, I told Mum: ‘No more matching dresses!’
Still, teachers struggled to tell us apart.
And when we grew old enough to have boyfriends, people cheekily asked if they ever got us mixed up.
Darlene and I were both attracted to dark-haired men. We never argued over fellas, but sometimes they resented how close we were.
Years passed.
When we were aged 27, we went to a special twins’ festival weekend.
I’d agreed to go along in matching T-shirts and jeans.
As we sat and had a drink in the hotel bar, I told Darlene: ‘Being surrounded by other twins is the only time we don’t stick out.’
'You've got the right one!'
Then Darlene locked eyes with a tall, dark-haired man.
‘Hi, I’m Mark,’ he said.
We got chatting and Mark had a great sense of humour.
He explained that he was also attending the twins’ festival.
‘I have to introduce you to my twin, Craig,’ he said. ‘I’ll go and get him.’
Darlene’s eyes followed him as he walked away.
‘He’s lovely,’ she whispered.
Soon, Mark was back.
‘Meet my identical twin, Craig,’ he said.
And now it was my turn to feel a spark of attraction.
Like Darlene, Craig was the older of the twins, and he was outgoing too.
But it was Darlene and Mark who were drawn to each other, and Craig and I who felt an attraction between us.
I thought: We’ve both found our opposite match!
We arranged to go to breakfast together the next morning.
Before we parted ways, we exchanged email addresses.
Back at work, Darlene and I found an email waiting for us from each of the brothers.
They wanted to see us again.
Craig wrote: Can I check I’ve got the right twin?
I smiled and replied: You’ve got the right one!
Craig and Mark lived a long drive away.
But the following month, they came to visit.
We went on a double date, and the waiter looked from me to Darlene.
‘So you’re twins,’ he said.
But then he saw our identical dates, and he got such a surprise, he nearly dropped his drinks tray.
As time passed, Craig and Mark visited as often as possible, and we introduced them to our parents and Tina.
We drew stares when we were out on double dates, and some people even asked to take photos.
After seven months together, Craig and Mark whisked us off on a holiday to Florida.
On the second night of our trip, they arranged a posh dinner at the hotel, but asked us to meet them in a room downstairs first.
Darlene and I got dressed up.
Then we went to meet Mark and Craig.
A laptop sat open on a table in the middle of the room, and Darlene and I went to have a nosey.
But we gasped when we saw the web page on the screen.
One link read: Diane will you marry me?
And the other read: Darlene will you marry me?
Our eyes filled with tears of joy, as we both clicked on the ‘yes’ button next to each question.
Then Mark and Craig slipped matching diamond rings on our fingers.
'I just want you to be happy'
Mark said: ‘We know how close you are, so we had them made especially.’
‘The stones are cut from the same diamond,’ Craig said.
Back home, our family felt thrilled when we announced our engagement.
We all wanted a joint wedding.
Darlene and I got stuck into planning the big day, and Craig and Mark organised the honeymoon.
Mum and Tina joined us when we went wedding-dress shopping.
Darlene and I had matching 5ft 3in frames.
So, if she tried on a dress, I didn’t have to, as it was like looking in a mirror.
And it was the same for her.
She laughed and said: ‘Saves so much time!’
Eventually, we found the perfect one — a beautiful white gown, with lace arms and a long train.
As we stood side by side in the mirror, Mum and Tina cried happy tears.
Darlene and I shared the same taste in cake and flowers. So there were no arguments when it came to planning.
In time, our wedding day arrived, and 500 guests gathered to help us celebrate.
Dad walked us down the church aisle — one daughter on each arm.
Darlene and I had matching hairdos and make-up, and Mark and Craig stood in matching black tuxedos.
We exchanged vows together, with each person reciting a few sentences at a time.
At the reception, all four of us took to the floor for the first dance to Shania Twain’s From This Moment On.
I looked over at Darlene and said: ‘This is perfect.’
After the wedding, we went on a joint honeymoon to the Bahamas.
And when we returned home, we had two houses built next door to each other.
We didn’t need a fence between them, as we were always popping round to see each other.
So, instead, we shared one big garden.
The only thing we didn’t want to do at the same time was start a family.
‘I can’t wait to be a mum,’ Darlene said.
Craig and I weren’t ready to rush into becoming parents.
But then, fate intervened.
We’d been married almost a year, when I discovered I was pregnant.
Sadly, I learnt of my pregnancy just as Darlene suffered a miscarriage.
I felt happy to be pregnant, but I felt guilty too, as Darlene had been the one who’d wanted a baby so badly.
‘You mustn’t feel like that,’ Darlene said. ‘I just want you to be happy.’
When I went for a scan, there was another surprise.
‘You’re expecting twins!’ the sonographer said.
I gasped.
‘You’re joking,’ I said.
‘Nope,’ she replied, pointing at the two little dots on the screen. ‘Identical twins!’
I felt excited. But I still felt bad telling Darlene.
‘It’s amazing news,’ she said. ‘They’ll be as close as we are.’
Then, when I was 25 weeks pregnant, I felt thrilled when Darlene told me she’d fallen pregnant.
At 37 weeks, I went into labour.
Darlene and Craig were by my side as I gave birth to identical twin boys, Brady and Colby.
Months later, Darlene gave birth to her daughter. She named her Reagan.
Then, when Reagan was 16 months old, Darlene welcomed another baby girl, Landry, to her family.
And in time, I went on to have another baby boy, Holden.
As our children grew up next door to each other, they shared a close bond.
It was incredible to think that as Darlene and I were identical twins and Craig and Mark were identical twins, it meant our children were genetically siblings, as they shared the same DNA.
When we went out as a huge family group, people thought they were seeing double — and then some!
Now, my youngest child, Holden, is aged 17.
And me, Craig, Darlene and Mark recently had a joint dinner to celebrate 23 years of marriage.
We feel blessed to have found our other halves — times two!