A one-day retreat for connection, reflection, and restoration.
Sunday, September 28, 2025
2:00 – 10:00 pm
The Branch Museum, Richmond, VA
Join us for a soulful gathering in one of Richmond’s most beautiful historic spaces, where women will come together to breathe, reflect, create, and connect.
This retreat is an offering from Rest + Rise, designed especially for Women in Community—an afternoon and evening to be fully yourself, held in a space of care and intention.
What’s included:
A grounding Yoga Flow led by Suzanne Burns
Light snacks + a seasonal mocktail crafted just for you
A hands-on floral keepsake, made with blooms from True Grit Flower + Farm
A quiet, centering Group Meditation with Ellie Burke
Time to explore, journal, or simply wander through the halls of The Branch Museum
A plant-forward, candlelit rooftop dinner, created with love and local ingredients by Melanie Russell
A sound bath under the stars, paired with gentle acupuncture to support rest, balance, and energetic flow
The full experience beautifully captured by Big Day Polaroids—with plenty of chances to snap sweet moments with new friends and bring home tangible memories of your day
This retreat is here to help you reconnect—to your breath, your body, your creativity, and to other women walking their own meaningful paths. You’ll leave feeling nourished, grounded, and more at home within yourself.
We hope you’ll join us for this special day.
Because sometimes, all we need is space.
To rest.
To rise.
Together.
Meet Your Facilitators
Ellie Burke
GROUP MEDITATION
Ellie Burke, M. Ed, Certified Life Coach, and ERYT-500 has been working in the fields of holistic wellbeing and directed self-discovery for over two decades. Ellie blends her background in education, knowledge of learning philosophies and methodologies, human development and life coaching techniques with 20+ years of experience in the mind-body sciences of yoga and meditation.
Ellie’s work is anchored in and guided by her own lived experience working with and understanding awareness-based self-discovery tools, coaching methods, as well as how holistic wellbeing impacts one's physiological, emotional and mental wellbeing.
She has the unique ability to help individuals identify deeply unconscious patterning and to help them make connections they haven't otherwise made in other forms of self-development or self-discovery work. Ellie is extremely pragmatic and works to make what feels like out-of-reach, inaccessible understandings accessible, relevant, and practical so that real tangible changes can be made in individuals and in communities.
Suzanne Burns
YOGA FLOW
Suzanne Burns is the founder of Humble Haven Yoga which opened its first brick and mortar location in January of 2016. Suzanne is passionate about making classes and spaces accessible to all individuals who desire to show up, particularly individuals with varying disabilities, and her advocacy extends beyond the world of yoga and into the realm of inclusive employment and education. Suzanne is a mother of three and a small business owner and mentor. She is passionate about empowering others to personally define what balance and fulfillment means to them.
Name
SOUND BATH UNDER THE STARS
Gingerbread cookie pudding I love gummi bears carrot cake topping. Liquorice dessert sugar plum cake toffee. Marzipan wafer donut lemon drops jelly beans.
Marzipan soufflé cake marshmallow donut gummi bears carrot cake topping bear claw. Dessert tootsie roll wafer cupcake chocolate cake liquorice I love soufflé. Lemon drops cheesecake icing chupa chups chupa chups dragée chocolate bar.
Name
ACUPUNCTURE
Gingerbread cookie pudding I love gummi bears carrot cake topping. Liquorice dessert sugar plum cake toffee. Marzipan wafer donut lemon drops jelly beans.
Marzipan soufflé cake marshmallow donut gummi bears carrot cake topping bear claw. Dessert tootsie roll wafer cupcake chocolate cake liquorice I love soufflé. Lemon drops cheesecake icing chupa chups chupa chups dragée chocolate bar.
Big Day Polarioids
EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY
Gingerbread cookie pudding I love gummi bears carrot cake topping. Liquorice dessert sugar plum cake toffee. Marzipan wafer donut lemon drops jelly beans.
Marzipan soufflé cake marshmallow donut gummi bears carrot cake topping bear claw. Dessert tootsie roll wafer cupcake chocolate cake liquorice I love soufflé. Lemon drops cheesecake icing chupa chups chupa chups dragée chocolate bar.
Melanie Russell
YOUR RETREAT HOST
Meet your retreat host, Melanie Russell. Before having 6 children and owning multiple businesses, Melanie first found her calling working in restaurants, curating events and managing a clandestine supper club out of her own kitchen. Connecting people around food quickly turned into connecting people around care. Melanie has owned A Brighter Birth/the ABB Collective for the last 17 years and has grown the small childbirth education classes it began with, into a thriving collective of over 70 practitioners providing all kinds of services to individuals and families in the Richmond, VA area. She also owns ToLABOR, where she trains and certifies Doulas all over the country, creating safe spaces to learn and share, and spreading the skills it takes to do so for others. Melanie has attended close to 700 births as a Birth Doula and focuses on guiding her clients holistically throughout the process, taking into consideration the whole being of each client, not just one part. At this point, Melanie is ready to merge all of her passions into one with the Rest + Rise Retreat. She has developed a weekend full of connections, inspiring education, movement, meditation and rest, all simultaneously happening around beautiful, delicious and healthy food.
"Magic happens when you bring wise, relaxed women to a table and feed them well. They open up and bloom under that kind of care and attention." Her hope in this retreat is to give women in business the space to truly, deeply REST so they can leave the weekend satiated in mind and body, with new friends, inspiration and energy, ready to RISE in their communities and beyond.
Join us.
Space is limited, and every detail is being crafted with intention just for you.
Come as you are, leave with what you didn’t know you needed.
Questions?
Reach out at melanie@abrighterbirth.com