Inside: Nuptials at Crystal Bridges

BENTONVILLE — Brooke Burckart wasn’t even engaged when the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened on its famous date, Nov. 11, 2011. Her fiance, Robert Sanderson, proposed on Friday the 13th in January.

Now, Burckart said, she’s awaiting her own special date, June 16, when she will marry Sanderson in the Grand Hall at Crystal Bridges. Her reception will be in the museum’s restaurant, Eleven, and guests will have access to two galleries during the affair, which starts after the museum closes. For use of the Grand Hall and Eleven, the cost is $15,000, the bride-to-be said.

“It’s surreal, really,” Burckart said this week.

“I really didn’t expect it to work out at all,” she said, speaking of the high-profile wedding stage, not her betrothed.

The couple’s profile on myweddings.com said they met when he was an undergrad at the University of Arkansas and was her mother’s personal trainer (Brooke later hired him for herself). Mom Susan Burckart is retired as a much-beloved elementary school principal in Bentonville. Dad Bob Burkart is a big name in the local construction and development industry.

Brooke and Sanderson’s first date was November of 2010. One romantic activity they have in common — they like to paint pottery at one of those paint-your-own-pottery shops.

He is now a physician’s assistant for Dr. Kris Hanby at Ozark Orthopaeodics, and she works for WellQuest in Bentonville. Burckart said the invite list is at 260 guests.