Rappers Monaleo and Stunna 4 Vegas Marry in All-Pink Texas Wedding (Exclusive)

Monaleo and Stunna 4 Vegas have found their cosmic love!

The couple tied the knot in front of 180 guests (plus an audience of more than 100,000 viewers on a TikTok livestream!) on Friday, Sept. 19, at Boxwood Manor, just outside of Houston, Texas.

The pair’s love story began with a happenstance meeting at a recording studio in 2021.

“She was at the studio that I was at, and her manager heard I was in there and he brought her in there to introduce her to me,” Stunna (whose real name is Khalick Antonio Caldwell) tells PEOPLE exclusively. “But we didn’t start dating from right there, that’s just what we just first met. Then I DM’d her [on social media] and that’s how we started kicking it.”

For Monaleo (whose real name is Leondra Gay), Stunna, 29, was unlike any man she’d met before. The first night she visited him at his home, she immediately picked up on how courteous he was toward her.

“He put my shoes over to the side [after I arrived],” she recalls. “I had some little Cartier glasses, he had put them up. Just taking good care of me, and I appreciated that. And I was appreciative that he didn’t try to do anything crazy. That made me feel good.”

And it’s that exact feeling of security that has bonded the two. Monaleo, 24, who has been vocal about her struggles with childhood abuse and depression, says that Stunna has been “very protective” of her from the start.

“I met him at a super vulnerable time in my life, so I appreciated the amount of protection that he came with,” she explains. “I had never really experienced that type of energy from somebody, where [they were] just like, ‘Nothing’s going to happen to you while you’re with me. And even if I’m not with you, nothing is going to happen to you.’ And I really appreciated just feeling safe with him.”

For Stunna, it’s the way Monaleo has shown up for him through life’s ups and downs. 

“She’s there for me,” he says. “You don’t always expect a girl to be there for you, but she’s there for me.”

Stunna proposed to Monaleo in a private moment in 2023. That same year, the couple welcomed their son, who turned 2 in May. The two rappers typically keep the intimate details of their milestones between them, so livestreaming their wedding may have come as a surprise. However, it was a “no-brainer” for them.

“I think we had to livestream the wedding,” Stunna says.

“I’ve been sharing this experience with my fan base and just vlogging this entire process,” Monaleo adds. “I feel like everything is so run-of-the-mill: go to the studio, shoot a video, shoot content, do this, do that.”

“Change a diaper, clean,” Stunna continues.

“It just really broke up the monotony of my day-to-day schedule, and it added a level of excitement, and I was really excited to share this process and just promote Black love, Black unity, Black community,” Monaleo adds.

The duo had a few non-negotiables and must-haves for the wedding. For their first dance, Stunna suggested “Cosmic Love,” the sweeping ballad that closes Monaleo’s first LP, Where the Flowers Don’t Die, because “she wrote that song for me,” he says proudly. 

And in a now-viral TikTok, Stunna was adamant about denying last-minute plus-ones to his wedding.

“I’m just real southern,” the North Carolina native asserts. “I was literally talking to 10 to 12 [people] that asked me could they bring a girl to the wedding and I wasn’t trying to DM everybody back. We kind of sacred when it comes to this type of stuff. We real strict and stiff on who we want around, you feel me? I’m on man time, bro. I’m on real man time.”

Monaleo worked closely with her wedding planner, Thashā Uche of Huff & Puff Events, to bring her vision to life. The full slate of events included a bachelor and “bachLEOrette” party, “blushing” bridal shower, family game show night and the “Caldwell Cookout” farewell dinner. The wedding ceremony and reception featured the lighting of a unity candle, a memory wall of Monaleo and Stunna’s loved ones who have died, a comfort food-filled menu by Cafe Natalie (including the southwestern delicacy Frito pie), and a Texas Melon wedding cake from Cakes by Tammy Allen.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be a Monaleo moment if it wasn’t an all-pink affair! The décor was handled by Royal Luxury Events and provided the perfect backdrop for Stunna’s blush pink suit by Well Groomed Man and Monaleo’s wedding and reception dress by Oluwagbemisola Okunla of Alonuko Bridal. 

“I did see some things about people commenting on how pink the wedding was. I don’t give a damn,” Monaleo declares confidently. “I know people want to make it seem like I was just forcing Stunna to do pink, but I think he looked handsome. Pink represents new beginnings and love and prosperity. So for that energy to just be being exchanged in a room amongst people who experienced such high volumes of trauma, just because of the way that we grew up in our circumstances, it just felt freeing and it felt liberating.”

One of the most talked-about, endearing moments of the ceremony was Stunna’s emotional response. Even before Monaleo floated down the aisle to Beyonce’s “1+1,” his eyes were filled with tears of joy.  

“I was thinking about like, ‘Damn, it’s about to really happen,’ ” he recalls. “I was already looking at our people too, though. I was looking at people that were already just out there. I was looking at our family, I was looking at gangstas that I’ve never seen dressed up like that.”

It’s a sentiment that the couple keeps close to them: fostering experiences for those around them. The couple shares that they feel a responsibility to bring their loved ones together and set an example as they continue to carve out their lives and manage their elevated platforms. In fact, it’s a responsibility that they’ve both felt from a young age.

“Before we ever had any money, we were the pillars and we were called to bring about a certain type of change within our family,” Monaleo says. “We struggled with it in the beginning and we learned a lot of lessons in terms of who to give money to and how to help people out without enabling people or crippling them. But really being patient with our community, learning and teaching them things inadvertently by the way we set boundaries [has been helpful]. It’s been a push and a pull, but I think we’ve done a really good job navigating with what we were given with the tools that we were given.”

Their journey to the altar hasn’t been easy, but it’s brought everyone around them much closer. After taking an Ancestry DNA test and hiring a genealogist, Stunna met his father (who attended the wedding) and grandfather for the first time in June. Monaleo then tells PEOPLE that her father, Leno, conquered a tough battle with cancer last year, which led to a triple bypass surgery after aggressive chemotherapy treatment.

“Walking down the aisle with my dad became a priority for me, and making sure that we shared that moment together was really important to me,” she says.

As for their next chapter, the couple will enjoy a tropical honeymoon, promises new music (“It’s finished and turned in,” Monaleo says about her upcoming major label debut album under her new deal with Columbia Records), and hopes to have “more children,” says an excited Stunna, echoed by a giggly Monaleo.

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Most importantly, though, the couple is committed to love.

“I miss being intertwined,” she continues, talking about the importance of family. “I miss growing up and everybody meeting up at my grandma’s house and we all there and we eating and somebody barbecued and somebody done brought the plates and somebody done brought the sodas and somebody done brought the forks. And we all just show up for each other and really put in effort to build a community and build our village. So that’s what this next chapter looks like for us and for the rest of our lives.”