A couple have recreated their wedding album half a century later—at the same church, and in the very same dress.

Carolyn and Kelly Gay, who are now in their seventies, got married in March 1971 with a white wedding at their local church.

To celebrate their golden anniversary, the couple returned to DSM First Church in Des Moines, Iowa, to recreate their pictures—exactly 50 years later to the day.

The church had the same alter, cross, and candelabras as was present at their first ceremony so many years before, so the photos were a perfect match.

Grandmother-of-four Carolyn spent three years growing out her hair for the shoot and was even able to wear the same dress she wore in her twenties.

The new photos were taken by Sam Hoyle from Two Hoyles Photography—who even managed to edit in Carolyn's late father Rolland Swalking her down the aisle.

Carolyn said, "It took about an hour to an hour-and-a-half to take the new pictures and it was just a fun time. They've had the church painted a couple of times since, but not long ago they scraped it back and have taken it back to the original colour… it's amazing."

As part of the shoot, Carolyn and Kelly dug out receipts from the original big day and rediscovered the entire thing—including honeymoon and feeding nearly 200 guests—came to around $340.

Carolyn's dress cost $46.35, with an extra $8.24 for alterations, while catering for 193 guests totaled $63.82.

Flowers, the biggest expense, came to $131.84, while their four-night honeymoon to New Orleans came in at $91.20, with $0.36 for gas.

But why go to all the trouble of recreating their wedding after all these years? Carolyn says, "I have one wedding picture I really, really loved when they took it from in the balcony overlooking all the people that came, and you can see a picture of Jesus overlooking the wedding.

"I wanted so badly to recreate that picture in particular.

The overlaid image took weeks to produce after the wedding, because it was a novel photography technique, but this time the photographer "whipped it out in no time."

Carolyn hasn't made plans for the 60th anniversary because, after all, "we've got to get there first".

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