As Told Over Brunch

View Original

RVA Brunch Weekend 2024: How to Support from Near and Afar

Sara Woznicki

I know if you’re one of our faithful email subscribers, you’re probably looking at this email thinking something along the lines of are you even still blogging? And then your second thought is, "Ah right, the annual Richmond Brunch Weekend blog post.”

Since I know you’re not all in Richmond, I’ll give you non-locals a pass to just scroll to the second half of this blog post to see how you can support the event. And if you’re looking for some life updates from me personally, I’ll throw some highlights down below in a third section. But let’s get going with the info for our locals…

If You’re In Richmond

If you’re in Richmond, the obvious way to support RVA Brunch Weekend is to come to the event, which runs September 6—8, 2024. Here’s the rundown:

Friday Night (Sept. 6): Kick off the weekend with us at our Block Party at Final Gravity Brewing Co. from 5:30 — 9 p.m. We’ll have food trucks, vendors, music with DJ Kobe, swag bags for the first 100 attendees and three big raffles:

  • Pamper Yourself & Your Pooch

  • Virginia Beach Brunch Getaway

  • Brunch At Home

Saturday (Sept. 7) & Sunday (Sept. 8): Brunch at one (or more) of our 30+ participating restaurants. They’ll donate a portion of proceeds to the Richmond SPCA. You’ll enjoy special peach dishes and cocktails.

For every participating restaurant that you visit during the event weekend, you’ll be able to enter to win one of four ‘Explore RVA’ prize packages. You’ll be able to find those details over on our new website soon, which is the perfect transition to another sub-section.

What’s New: Everyone always wants to know what’s new, and DON”T YOU WORRY, THERE’S NEW STUFF! We might be in our seventh year running, but we’re still keeping it fresh with:

  • New sponsors: Huge shoutout to our presenting sponsor Pendelton Law team! CottageCare House Cleaning and Yelp also both signed on to help support us in our mission to fundraise for the Richmond SPCA.

  • New website: If you’re wondering why all these links are now going to a different site, the reason is quite comical. I thought this website (ATOB) was going to sunset, so I moved all RVA Brunch Weekend content over to a new website that I created with my sister called Woz Here Co.* Then we didn’t sunset this blog, so here we are cross-promoting the event back here. Oops.
    *About Woz Here Co: My sister is a great artist, so we’ve teamed up to create custom travel stickers, magnets, pins and more that commemorate some of the favorite cities we’ve created. We haven’t hard-launched yet, but were quite excited to design this year’s RVA Brunch Weekend shirt (and a cat version too). We’re currently in the red (we’re a legit LLC with bills and inventory y’all), so please follow us on Instagram and buy things from us once we hard launch with our Hometown series! This is also a great way to stay up-to-date on what I’m doing (for the one of you who might be interested).

  • Block Party Style Kickoff: We’ve done kickoffs before, but this year we wanted to go bigger and bolder and more block-party-eqsue — so we went to a brewery. Final Gravity will be hosting us (and donating a portion of sales back to the Richmond SPCA). We’ve got a DJ, food trucks, vendors, three raffles and swag bags for the first 100 people. It’s going to be awesome. No tickets needed, just grab some friends (or don’t) and show up!

If you’re a local but busy that weekend, tell your friends to come to the event! And if you’ve got any kind of social media following, tell them about the event too.

If You’re Not in Richmond

If you’re not in Richmond for RVA Brunch Weekend, you can still support the event by:

  • Buying Merch: We used to just sell shirts, now we’re doing shirts, sweatshirts, crop tops, baby onesies, hats, mugs and more. 100% of net proceeds will be going to the Richmond SPCA and there’s free shipping (within the U.S., sorry Caz) on all items. Plus, we’re fulfilling orders as soon as they’re ordered, so no more month-long wait time for orders to start shipping. So go shopping and do good!

  • Donating: If you don’t like buying things, throw a couple bucks toward the Richmond SPCA in honor of RVA Brunch Weekend.

  • Telling your Richmond-based friends to go brunch at one of our participating restaurants Sept. 7 and 8: TBH, if you’re in Richmond, you can do this step too!

  • Lying to me and tell me it’s all going well: If you’re wondering, “Is she okay or is she joking?” SAME. I’m also wondering that. Between a new job, trying to make RVA Brunch Weekend BIGGER, starting a small business (see above re: Woz Here Co.) and trying to get my health in order (see below about walking to eat too many pastries and developing heartburn), it’s all a lot. So if we all just band together to make RVA Brunch Weekend successful, it’ll all be worth it, right!?

Personal Update Section

Well, as you can tell, I’m still doing the RVA Brunch Weekend thing. It’s definitely way harder without Cazey here, but I’ve got some really incredible friends who have stepped up and helped in major ways — like taking on the bulk of the restaurant outreach, doing graphic design, helping get vendors for the kickoff event and helping with some major marketing outreach.

Outside of Richmond Brunch Weekend, here are some fast and loose updates on me:

  • Got another new job (which might be like three new jobs later to those I don’t see in real life). I’m a Chief of Staff now and REALLY enjoy it.

  • I’ve moved in with my boyfriend in Union Hill. Bellatrix loves the floor-to-ceiling windows and I love being able to walk to pastries and yoga.

    • Yes, I sold my condo. No, I didn’t want to try to fix everything that needed to be updated and try to rent it out.

  • I’ve got heartburn now. I guess all the years of being a foodie has caught up with me.

  • I still like to travel. We recently went to Ireland and we’re heading to Michigan soon (I like putting those in the same sentence like they’re equal travel destinations).

  • Along with pimping out my sister’s art via Woz Here Co., I’m also helping my Uncle grow his art community on Instagram. Make me look like a good niece and go follow him!

  • Meanwhile, I haven’t posted on my personal social media since last Richmond Brunch Weekend. Between work, keeping @RichmondBrunch’s Instagram filled, trying to launch Woz Here Co., trying to work out, travel, see friends, walk the dog, blah blah blah, I’ve all but disappeared on my personal account. Who would have guessed I’d go from blogging multiple times a week about all my thoughts to barely having an up-to-date online presence?!

  • I have ideas for both multiple books (one a children’s book) and a board game. If I can ever muster up the follow-through, I’m going to try to get one of those across the finish line.

Anyways, that’s it for now! Go brunch Sept. 6—8, buy some merch and follow @WozHereCo on Instagram (or join our email list in the footer of our website). Thank you friends and I’ll maybe talk to you again annually when we do our next Richmond Brunch Weekend.