Kelli Murray

YOUNG LOVE MAD STYLE: Kelli + Sam (+ Rylee) Larson

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Kelli + Sam Larson
Sam is a national Sales Manager for Made For Good clothing brands and Kelli is an Artist, Illustrator and Graphic Designer.

Their favorite thing to do together is going to the beach (since they do live on the west coast). Sam loves the surf and Kelli loves the sun.
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Meet Sam & Kelli Larson. 
we live in Encinitas, California with our cat Bam and our 1 year old daughter, Rylee. We met through a mutual friend. Sam worked for Nixon at the time and I was designing for a clothing company called Jedidiah... so we kind of ran in the same circle and would often see each other at trade shows and out and about.  We hit it off, swapped digits, dated for a couple years, fell in love and got hitched in November of 2009. We've been married three years and together for five.

Fun Fact:
As kids, we both grew up going to our grandparents cabins in Wisconsin every summer.  Sam being from Minnesota and me from California.  I love that we both share a deep love for that place and it's beauty, and we hope that our kids (we plan to have more!) can grow up experiencing it the way we did.


Currently Shopping at: 
Sam rarely buys clothes because he's the sales manager for several clothing brands... so he's usually wearing CXXVI, Afends, or Jedidiah.  But when he does buy something it's usually from Levi's or vintage.
Kelli sticks to her favorites, Free People, ASOS, Anthro

Currently Jaming:
Of Monsters and Men

Where to  stalk find this adorable fam:
Kelli's Blog <> 
Instagram <> Kelli_Murray
Instagram <> Samalanche


Fun Stuff

Other than the shows I recommended previously, here are a few more events to participate in!
 SAN DIEGO- (06.12)
for details click here. 
the show is free but next door is $10 dollars for a concert.
buy tickets here.


CALIFORNIA (06.25)
At the end of the month, John Culqui (those are his beautiful paintings below) will be painting at the Aquarium of the Pacific event, "Night Dive." It will be an evening filled with local (Long Beach) art, music, culture and cocktails. If you go, you might be the lucky winner of an original John Culqui painting. As if all that wasn't enough already, there's one more cake topper...bike valet. Awesome.
If you want to find out more CLICK HERE. I would definitely go to this if I was on that side of the US.  Check out more of John's work here  and don't stop after looking at his surf & skate, be sure to check out the traffic signal box art. SO RAD!




TEXAS (06.18)
If you live in Houston and love to create stuff/craft, keep reading! Roxy from Grrfeisty and Sarah from Sew Crafty have put together an Etsy Craft Party for JUNE 18TH. Sarah is the official host and lives in the Heights (I've been told she is totally rad). If you are unsure about her radness click here to see the first craft studio/sewing lounge in Houston, Sew Crafty! To get more information CLICK HERE! Again this is something I can not do because I will be in Dallas, TX, but if you are involved in creating of some sort, get out of your house and learn/share with other creative people. It's fun.

Next time i'm in Houston, I need to stop by the studio to say hello and possibly play :)

If you live anywhere near those two events, you have no reason to be bored or unproductive.

K

more engagement photo inspiration.

 

  
  
  
  
  
wow. aren't these photos breathtaking!? kelli and sam's engagement photos are some of the sweetest couples shots i've ever seen!i think they are absolutely angelic. when i first saw them i thought they looked like models in a swell catalog. i just love how personal and unique they are. make sure you visit her blog, and take a look at her amazing art.
what i love about this shoot
how pure and innocent it is. i love the sunlight. the grass and cat tails. i love how it reminds me of first love. boy meets girl. love at first sight.

here are a couple questions i asked kelli and she kindly responded. hope this helps all you lovebirds out.

1. is there any advice you have for people looking for a photographer? or for people with a budget? do you think its important to have an engagement shoot?

I love photos...so hiring a good photographer for our wedding and engagement shoot was a must. I have a good friend whose photographic style I love, so I knew right away that I wanted her to shoot us. She is not only super creative, but also very reliable and was more than accomodating in working with our budget. 
I don't think everyone HAS to have an engagement shoot, but for us, it was a great excuse to get some awesome photos taken that we would otherwise never do.  With this shoot, it was fun to get creative and try to show a bit of our personalities through the pictures.

2. how did you choose your photographer? did they direct the poses? did you feel awkward?

Erica is a friend, so nothing is really awkward with her! She is really good about capturing the moment without us even knowing she is there.  Those are some of my favorite pictures.....the ones that are natural and un-staged.  But for many of the pictures, yes, she positioned us and thought of creative angles to shoot from.  A little direction in where to look or how to stand is always nice when you are not used to doing it!

3. did you already have a vision of how you wanted the shoot to go? how long did the shoot go on?
I think I ALWAYS have a vision of what I want.  Which can be both a blessing and a curse!  But Erica nailed it.  
She told us to bring three changes of clothes and we would bounce around our hometown of Encinitas, CA.  I wanted the pictures to be "close to home"...not somewhere we had never been or that was unfamiliar to Sam and I.  We picked out a few locations we loved...and went from there.  I knew one of the "looks" I wanted to be very soft and romantic.  So I chose a silk ivory dress I made from one of my mom's old nightgowns, and a wire garland crown.  Sam wore a soft grey wool button up and his "go-to" denim pants.  I think out of all our engagement pictures...these turned out to be my favorite.
The other two changes were just "us".  We chose a few of our favorite items and matched them up to see what worked.  

All said and done...the shoot took us about an hour and a half with all the bouncing around to different locations.


4. how did you decide what you wanted to wear? and the place of the shoot?
answered above...
thanks kelli you rock!
b
i love the dress you made out of your moms nightgown. precious.
and the wire garland went perfect with it:)

The nettles. they are the cutest, most genuine and real. i love these photos taken by our friend ryan bc he totally captures who they really are. chloe is just a doll and is always giggling so when i see these photo i can hear her. and look at those dimples on both of them. ugh it's sickening how perfect they are together:) and brent...he's just so cool.
i love them. i miss them. they now live in encinitas, california.
 
  
  
 photos by: ryan booth
i asked chloe to share their engagement story and this is how it went.

Brent proposed to me on the 2 year anniversary of us meeting. We spent the day before at a water park in new braunfels (schlitterbahn) and the next day exploring Austin Texas and conoeing down the river in Zilker park. After we swam in the river and went back to the car he surprised me by pulling out a cute dress for me to wear to a fancy dinner, so i changed inside a gas station and he brought me to a candle light dinner at Houstons. Afterwerwards he told me he was going to bring me to get dessert so we went for a little drive and ended up at the top of Mount Bonnell in Austin. Brent had been timing the sunsets the week prior and so right at 8:15pm he started saying really sweet things and hugged me and I thought it was weird that he was shivering in the middle of August, but he was nervous and shaking and then I felt him put his hand in his jacket pocket and he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I didn't see it coming at all because the week before he tricked me and said he wanted to wait two years to get proposed, which i was super bummed out about but thought it was worth the wait hahah. Another funny thing is, he didn't know what size ring i wear and didn't want to get one too small so he got a size 6 ring and i wear size 4, so it was huuuge on me, but i thought it was really cute. 

I agree super cute! thanks chloe bear! can't wait to come up and visit the nettles/halford and sebree's soon!