Alexa and Carlos PenaVega’s Real-Life Love Story Is Better Than a Hallmark Movie

From Country Living

If you’re a fan of the PenaVegas, you’re going to want to pay very close attention to the Hallmark Channel over the next couple of weeks. Alexa PenaVega, 30, is starring in this weekend’s Christmas Made To Order, while her husband, 29-year-old Carlos PenaVega, stars in A Midnight Kiss the following weekend. To celebrate the dual release, here are a few key things to know about the power couple.

Alexa wasn’t that into Carlos at first.

Crazy, but true. “When I met Carlos, I had never dated a Latin guy,” Alexa told People in 2013. “I don't know if it's because all of my family is like a Latin crazy family, but I've only dated tall, lanky white guys. Everybody has been over six-foot-three and white. Meanwhile, Carlos is five-foot-seven, very Latin and he's an actor and I always said no actors.” Despite Carlos being everything she wasn’t looking for on paper, she said, he ended up being “everything I needed. He is truly incredible.”

They’ve appeared on-screen together more than once— and in a Hallmark movie!

Carlos and Alexa memorably competed against one another on Dancing With the Stars in 2015, but that wasn’t the first time they’d been co-stars. The couple appeared together in the 2015 movie Spare Parts, which also starred Marisa Tomei and Jamie Lee Curtis. “It was so much fun,” Carlos told Latina of acting with his wife. “I mean, she’s been doing this for years, but for me it’s my first big movie. I was like, ‘OK, I’m leaving home for 3 months’ and then she got on and I was like, "Yes!" Because, you know, she can run lines with me, she can be on set, she can be like, "Babe, that was an awful scene, you should do it again.’”

More recently, the couple actually played romantic leads together in the 2016 Hallmark movie Love at Sea, and had a blast. “I love working with my husband,” Alexa told TVInsider. “We really know what each other’s limits are and we can be way more playful. I think that there’s something to be said that’s really special about getting to work with your spouse. When I’m working with other male actors, I don’t know how far I can push them. So working with my husband, we really can add fun little things that make the characters special. We can play with each other and ad-lib because we know that we’ll be able to kind of banter back and forth really well.”

Carlos designed Alexa’s engagement ring himself.

How’s that for romantic?! Carlos reportedly popped the question during a romantic road trip in 2013, and the couple married at a resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, the following January. "We are so blessed to have been able to spend this special day with the people we love the most,” the couple told Us Weekly in a statement. "We look forward to sharing a happy and healthy life together."

And yes, in case you were wondering, the couple did indeed combine both of their former last names—Alexa Vegas and Carlos Pena—to create the portmanteau name PenaVega.

Their son just turned two.

Alexa and Carlos welcomed their first child, Ocean King PenaVega, on December 7, 2018, which means Ocean just celebrated his second birthday.

The couple are also proud parents to two adorable pups: Sydney Raye, a German shepherd, and Sasha Bear, a goldendoodle.

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