Along with my fashionable fish scale dress, the design of my bouquet was the essence of my Seamaiden's Dream theme of a wedding. When I approached Randie McConnell, proprietor of
Faye Daniel Designs, with the concept of making the fantasy and whimsy of the Seamaiden an aesthetic reality, the inspiration of one of my favorite works in the collection of the
Walters Art Museum was foremost in my thoughts.
Flowers by a Pond with Frogs by Giuseppe Recco is an exquisite rendering of cultivated tulips in a naturalistic setting, which, of course, is pure fancy.
My bouquet, likewise, would need to marry the water lily of the wishgiver mermaid, who resides in the stillest of ponds, to the seashells of the spellsinger mermaid, who mesmerizes the sailors of the open ocean. I think the Seamaster would say his Seamaiden bride magically embodies the somewhat incongruent attributes of each of these mers. Brava to Randie and
Faye Daniel Designs for conjuring all these seemingly paradoxical qualities in one resplendent bouquet.
