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Just weeks after announcing his engagement, the gospel singer and pastor wed Dr. LaBoris Cole in an over-the-top ceremony at The Chosen Vessel Church in Fort Worth, Texas, on March 20.

According to Essence, the wedding itself was impossible to miss. Cole arrived at the church by helicopter alongside her father and sister, while Sapp’s congregation and family waited inside. There were three dresses, a ballerina performance, walls of flowers, and a sanctuary transformed into something closer to a movie set than a traditional church ceremony.

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Cole’s custom wedding gown, which she designed herself, was hand-sewn in Egypt by Malton Couture. Later, she changed into a pearl-covered reception look designed for dancing.

“I wanted to look regal,” Cole said. “I wanted to bring pride to our family. I wanted to look like a Queen.”

Despite the spectacle, Sapp and Cole said the wedding had been in motion long before the public knew anything about it. The pair had been friends for more than a decade before deciding in 2024 to exclusively date. From the beginning, both agreed the relationship was heading toward marriage.

“By 2025, we knew we were heading towards marriage,” Sapp said. “Neither one of us wanted to wait until 2027, so we decided on 2026.”

In fact, the couple picked March 20 as their wedding date before Sapp had even proposed.

Cole explained that the decision to keep the relationship private was intentional. “We didn’t do this because it was a secret,” she said. “But because it was sacred.”

The ceremony also highlighted how much Sapp’s family shaped the moment. The singer’s three adult children—whom he raised after the 2010 death of his wife, MaLinda Prince Sapp—played a central role in the wedding.

One of the biggest moments came when officiant Bishop Neil C. Ellis asked, “Who gives this man to be wed?” and Sapp’s children stood up and answered together: “We do.”

For Sapp, that moment carried extra weight. He has spent the last 16 years speaking openly about grief, fatherhood, and whether he would ever marry again.

In 2022, he admitted he was still learning how to navigate dating after losing MaLinda to colon cancer. At the time, he said he hoped to eventually find someone with whom he could “share life.”

Now, he has.

“Looking back and thinking, ‘We finally did it—I finally did it’ after 16 years, and being happy about it,” Sapp said. “Going from not thinking this was something I would ever do again, to actually doing it, is just an amazing feeling.”