Alison Sweeney And Dave Sanov's Y2K Wedding Was Just Like A Hallmark Movie

If there's any Hallmark actor who is an expert on love, it's Alison Sweeney. She's starred in over two dozen films on the channel, including the film series "Murder She Baked" and various Christmas films such as "Good Morning Christmas" and "Open By Christmas." She's also very well-known for her soap opera past, portraying Sami Brady on "Days of Our Lives" from 1987 to 2022.

While Sweeney has gained quite the experience with romance during her time on the Hallmark Channel, her love life is just as romantic as the films she stars in. Sweeney has been married to former California Highway Patrol Officer Dave Sanov for more than 20 years, and she still maintains that their wedding day was one of the most special moments of her life. On top of the fact that Sweeney was marrying her sweetheart, the ceremony was made all the more sentimental by the violin duet performed by Sweeney's mom and Sanov's dad, honoring the fact that the couple met through their parents, who knew each other for years as professional musicians.

Alison Sweeney delighted fans when she starred alongside Lacey Chabert and Autumn Reeser in the "Wedding Veil" trilogy on Hallmark, but the "Christmas at Holly Lodge" actor's real-life wedding rivaled any fairytale the network could dream up. Sweeney and her husband Dave Sanov tied the knot on July 8, 2000, with a sweet ceremony that had a nod to their origins. Sweeney and Sanov first met as children through their parents, since Sweeney's mom and Sanov's dad are both trained violinists who have worked on the same projects, such as feature-film soundtracks. The couple reconnected as adults and fell in love. During an appearance on ET in 2020 with Matt Cohen, Sweeney watched a clip of their parents playing a violin duet during the ceremony at their wedding.

"It was such a special moment then, and to celebrate it now is just incredible," she said while tearing up at the memory. "Those two violins are how Dave and I met, and [now] we have two beautiful children and we've been married 20 years."

Cohen showed Sweeney some other clips from her wedding, including one of Sanov and herself right after they tied the knot. Sweeney appeared to be in a state of newlywed bliss, while Sanov joked that he didn't know how the ring worked yet. Maybe he didn't know then, but it seems the couple has figured out how to make it work in the years since.

Even though Alison Sweeney and Dave Sanov's wedding was straight out of a Hallmark movie, their marriage has only gotten better with time. The couple celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in July 2020 during a peak in the COVID pandemic, meaning that they had to get a bit creative with their date night. Sweeney and Sanov set up a picnic in their backyard overlooking a California sunset, as Sweeney wrote in the caption on Instagram, "Not quite how we planned it, but ... that's one of the best lessons we've learned over the last 20 years. Some of the best adventures come when plans get chucked out the window."

As for the longevity of their marriage, Sweeney has advice for other couples on what makes a lasting union. She spoke to Fox News about her secret to staying together forever. "I would say to people who are newly married or in a relationship is appreciating the little stuff. It's not 'The Bachelor.' You don't have to have some big romantic date with twinkle lights and a limo or whatever, that's not what marriage is, it's not what a relationship is."