I.N.T.E.R.E.S.T.I.N.G: Identical Twins Marriage

This is the story of Mr. and Mrs. Sanders. But it’s also the story of Mr. and Mrs. Sanders.

It all started in 1998 at a Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. The festival is an annual gathering of twins from around the country--an opportunity to meet and mingle with other twins from around the country. Craig and Mark Sanders, identical twin brothers, stopped by because they had business in town. Diane and Darlene Nettemeier, also identical twins, had relatives nearby and wanted to check it out.

Mark was alone when he first met the two women at a bar during the festival. At first the women didn’t believe Mark when he said that he had a twin so he ran up to his hotel room and called his brother Craig to come and meet “these really nice, cute twin blondes.”

When Craig came down, he was instantly drawn to Diane. It was a case of opposites attracting, Craig explained.

“Diane is more reserved and I’m more outgoing,” Craig told New York Daily News. The other couple had a similar type of attraction, but it was the opposite way around. “My brother is a bit more reserved and Darlene was the outgoing one.”

 For their first date, Craig and Mark took Diane and Darlene to a baseball game. After falling in love with their respective sweethearts, the brothers proposed on the same day. Both sisters said yes and in 1999, the two sets of twins had a double wedding. The sisters’ dad walked them both down the aisle at the same time.

Craig and Mark relied on each other while growing up, but were never as close as Diane and Darlene. Both of the brothers majored in history at the University of California-Los Angeles. After college, they felt the need to live separate lives. When he got a job offer in New York, Craig decided to take it. He lived away from Mark for six years.

“I just thought it was time to split up,” Craig said. “I thought he was stunting my maturation.”

Diane and Darlene, on the other hand, did everything together. After taking many of the same high school classes, the sisters decided to go to work directly after graduating. Craig said the pair had never spent more than a day apart from each other.

“We argue once in awhile,” Diane told the New York Daily News. “But we never fight.”

So when it came time to settle down, the two families started looking for houses in the same area.

“If we lived 50 miles away from each other, [the sisters] would want to visit each other all the time,” said Craig.

When two adjacent plots of land opened up, the couples took it as a sign.

“We just thought it would probably be something [the sisters] would enjoy more,” Craig said.

Craig and Diane’s eldest children are also identical twins. Diane said that being a twin herself helps her resolve some issues between her sons Colby and Brady, 11.

“When the boys started to want to dress differently, I understood that,” said Diane. “And when one does better on a test, I can relate to people comparing the both of us. I know how that feels.”

Craig and Diane have another son. Mark and Darlene have two girls. The cousins attend the same school district. There’s no fence in between their properties, which means the kids can roam freely between the two houses.

“I don’t know if it’s fate, or whatever. It seems like a lot of things that happened were meant to be,” said Craig. “It’s how anyone meets the person they fall in love with.”