A Bride Wanted to Get Married at Her Childhood Home, Her Dad Works for a Year to Turn It Into Her 'Dream Wedding Venue' (Exclusive)

Madison Proznick is one deeply grateful newlywed.

Not only did the bride get to marry the love of her life, Brandon Bowling, on Saturday, July 13, 2024, but she also got to enjoy her special day at her childhood home.

Speaking to PEOPLE about her wedding, Madison explains how she met her now-husband just before March 2020 changed lives around the globe.

"We met on March 1, 2020, right before the pandemic. It was a couple of weeks before our second date. Then we were away from each other for a few months, but our relationship moved quickly. We really hit it off right away," she tells PEOPLE. "After a couple of years, we got engaged. His brother actually married one of my best friends, who set us up."

For Madison, there's something special about celebrating special moments at her childhood home. The couple previously celebrated their engagement with loved ones at the home.

"Last summer, we had our engagement party there. There were around 60 people, about half the amount we would have at the wedding. It went amazing," she shares. "My parents are natural entertainers. There was a part of us that was like, 'Should we do our wedding at the house?'"

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Madison was torn. As much as she liked the idea and admits she "always dreamed of getting married at the house," she wanted everyone to enjoy the special day, including her parents."We really wanted them to feel present for the day and not feel like they had to be still on and entertaining," she explains. "At one point about a year before the wedding, we had explored other options. Then we ended up coming back to it. It was where we were both like, 'No, we've got to do it at the house.'"

When Madison brought the idea to her parents, she was "so glad" that they were also excited about the idea.

"It meant the world to me. I feel super lucky. I feel like my parents are always all in for their children and for the people that they love," she says. "That has come to mean so much to me and the whole day was just really, really special."

In a heartfelt TikTok, Madison shared some behind-the-scenes looks at the hard work her dad put into transforming the backyard into her "dream wedding venue."

"The house is kind of on a slope. So there was this huge garden bed in the backyard, and we wanted to have the ceremony there. He removed this garden bed in the middle so we could -

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set all the chairs," she explains. "Then there used to be this big monitor feature around the pool that he removed as well that made more space. So definitely a couple of things opened up so that we could host that many people there."

Madison was amazed to see all the changes, big and small, that were made in the year leading up to her wedding.

"My mom was also a huge help. They both really went all in," she says. "There were a lot of people who loved us that worked to make it what it was."

Madison's dad is seen in the video, where she notes he "worked on it consistently for the year before" her nuptials to get everything ready for the big day.

"The biggest change that he didn't do himself was painting the exterior of the whole house. They hired someone to do that, so I would say that was a huge change from before and after the wedding. I think they had like stuff on their list that they always wanted to do that also got incorporated," she says.

"My dad always says how when you're having people over, it forces you to get things done. So they did. Painting the whole exterior of the house and the water feature was huge. My mom also did some work inside the house, like wallpapering the bathrooms. They were really getting into all the details as we got closer to the wedding."

It all paid off on the day of when Madison took in the final look of the yard, decorated and ready for her special day.

"Walking down the aisle was just everything. I think that moment of walking down with my parents and seeing the way the house was transformed and all my loved ones being there as I married the love of my life was overwhelming for sure. I didn't realize how big of a moment that would be until I was in it."

The newlywed was surprised to see her video go viral after she shared it, first on Instagram and later on TikTok.

"It was so sweet and really cool. I remember shortly after I posted it, I was like, 'Wow, people love this video.' It was such a wholesome video. I put it up naturally to show how much I appreciated him. It was so cute how he was always working in the yard and doing all the things to make this as special as it was."

"There's just so many memories of my childhood and our family. It was so cool looking around the room — because we cleared out the whole living room of all the furniture and everything and put tables inside — and seeing it set up as a wedding venue. It was like a true Father of the Bride wedding. It was like the best day of our lives."

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