July 25, 2025 – Town of Barton, WI – Fuzzy and Shirley Duenkel of the Town of Barton, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on May 17, 2025. As part of the celebration the couple took a photo, as closely resembling their wedding day. They put a lot of effort into that project, including Shirley wearing her wedding dress from 50 years ago. The couple shared some behind-the-scenes moments on what it took to put it together.
“For the party, Shirley had the idea to photograph and display a re-creation of our wedding photo from the church where we got married in 1975. Being a portrait photographer, I was capable of doing that,” said Fuzzy.
“We called the church, then St. John’s in Monches but now St. Teresa of Calcutta, for permission. The church secretary, Teri Moseler, was very gracious and allowed us the time to photograph our current portrait.
“I set up lighting similar to how our wedding photographer, Bob Boltz, lit us in 1975.
“While the church altar has changed over the years, and we photographed the updated version when the church was temporarily decorated with flowers and banners, we were both thrilled with the similarity between the photos… 50 years apart,” said Fuzzy.
While Fuzzy rented a tuxedo as closely matching his tux from 1975, Shirley wore her original dress.
“I bought my wedding dress ($50) and veil ($75) at Esther’s Bridal in Hartford,” said Shirley.
The 1975 newspaper announcement read; “The bride wore an A-line full-length gown with a modified empire waist, lace bodice with long sleeves. A headpiece, highlighted by seed pearls, held a waist-length veil. She carried a colonial bouquet, with a slight cascade, of yellow roses, white flat mums, and baby’s breath.”
“I simply liked the way the dress and veil looked on me,” said Shirley. “And thoroughly enjoyed wearing it again all day at our anniversary celebration.
“When guests found out I was wearing my original wedding dress, some wondered if Fuzzy was wearing his original tuxedo.  To which I replied, ‘He rented his tux, but he is the original man!’
Now, for the challenges of recreating the photo. Fuzzy, a professional photographer, provides the details.
I had four challenges.
First, I had to set the power and distance of my lights (flash units) to not only light us but also light the altars in the background to the same brightness as in the 1975 wedding photograph.
The second issue was choosing a camera height and focal length. That was necessary so we would be the same height and relative size against the altar as in the original photograph.
The third challenge was getting our poses to match. With the camera on a self-timer, I had to make an exposure, then go to the camera to compare that pose to the pose on an 8×10 wedding photograph we brought along. It took 11 exposures before our pose was as close as possible to the original pose.
The fourth task was to use Photoshop to digitally copy Shirley’s original bouquet and my boutonnière from the wedding portrait to the current anniversary portrait since we chose not to make a new bouquet.
I combined the 1975 and 2025 wedding portraits into a digital mat so the two images could be seen and printed as one.
We were honored when the church requested a copy of the 16×24 inch “Then and Now” wall portrait to display in the church entrance.
“Time marches on,” said Fuzzy. “And even though our physical appearance has evolved, our hearts feel the same love.”
Please join in wishing the happy couple a wonderful 50th anniversary.
If you have a special anniversary story, please contact judy@washingtoncountyinsider.com
