A dose of Dr. Seuss fired up Chris Bently and Camille Crowder
If true love is the stuff of fairy tales, could the same be true of nursery rhymes?
Crowder was working at the gallery when Bently, a real estate and organic farming entrepreneur, walked in.
Bently went to the gallery for a mental break, but his mind soon became flooded with something else:
A few times a week, they talked about the artwork on display — the surrealist works of Theodor Seuss Geisel.
Bently traveled between the Bay Area, Tahoe and Nevada, for his work with Bently Enterprises, which oversees a property management firm, a luxury apartment building, the Bently Reserve, an organic ranch and a distillery.
When together, they chatted about life, aspirations and their deepest fears, and it was “wonderful,” Bently said.
Bently put Crowder in charge of development at his eponymous charitable foundation, which supports nonprofits in sustainability, creativity and animal rights.
The two also faced challenges, including the deaths of Bently’s former wife and his father.
The pair’s horizons expanded with world travels to Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Greece, London and Scotland.
While in Edinburgh last August, where they were touring distilleries, Bently proposed with a ring of his own design, made by Shreve & Co. He considered many spots, but popped the question after popping the cork on a bottle of bubbly one night in their hotel room.
Bently and Crowder, who will wed at a castle in Scotland on June 24, hosted an engagement party for 300 friends April 11 at the Bently Reserve in San Francisco.
The “gypsy masquerade” theme played to their travels, they said, as well as the love that Bently, a former musician, has for the creativity of the Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, which he frequently attends.
Exotic performers, musicians and DJs added flair, but there is no mystery to their affinity.
Carolyne Zinko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.