Merry & Murphy started with two names and one shared love of candles. I'm Qwade Murphy, and my wife is Makayla Merry — Merry being her name before we married, which felt right to hold onto for the brand we built together. We didn't set out to start a business. We just kept lighting candles every evening, comparing scents, complaining about the ones that smelled cheap or burned unevenly, and slowly realizing we cared more about this than either of us expected.

So we decided to make our own. Not the fastest version, not the cheapest version — the one we'd actually want sitting on our own coffee table. That meant sourcing real soy wax instead of cutting corners, testing scent combinations until they actually smelled the way we wanted a room to feel, and caring just as much about how the candle looked as how it burned. Every label, every jar, every choice came down to one simple question: would we be proud to give this to someone we love?

Merry & Murphy is still small — just the two of us, figuring it out as we go. But every candle that leaves here has been touched by both of us, start to finish. We hope it brings a little of that same quiet, cared-for feeling into your home that it brings into ours.