On the twelfth floor of the Hilton Garden Inn, overlooking downtown Iowa City, Krista Stramel, the director of special events at The Vue Rooftop Bar & Restaurant, was preparing to host a night of candles and fun.
The event, promoted as a “Candle Pour Bar,” was in partnership with Tura Lura Co., a small business run by Erika Christiansen, a University of Iowa professor in the College of Law Center for Human Rights who has been running Tura Lura Co. for close to 3 years.
“I reached out to Tura Lura via email and pitched the idea for the event and just let [Erika] know that I like to reach out to small businesses that I find kind of niche and exciting. The businesses get to set the ticket prices and what they need for the events, and we meet them in the middle to do whatever’s necessary to put on the event,” Stramel explained.
Tura Lura Co., which gets its name from an Irish lullaby Christiansen’s grandmother used to sing to her, has a creative studio in West Branch, Iowa. Christiansen offers candle-making classes, as well as classes on perfume-making, reed-diffuser making, and dried florals.
“I started Tura Lura in 2021 when we were in the middle of lockdown, and we were all experiencing that loneliness. I wanted to create something that would bring people together and give us that human interaction.” Christiansen explained.
During the event, Christiansen placed a special emphasis on guests interacting with each other and encouraged conversations while different scents were being passed around.
Guests were provided with 15 different fragrances to choose from and different color options for the candle jar. They could also create a personalized label on a typewriter.
Along with the candle-making, the event provided drinks, which were included in the cost of the $65 ticket. Guests could choose from their choice of cocktail, wine, or non-alcoholic beverages while Stramel oversaw the event, ensuring everything was up to par.
“I’m always looking for fun, immersive workshops to bring to The Rooftop, and I’m always looking for fun and exciting ways for the community to be able to experience our restaurant not only in just being able to come and dine with us but in being able to enjoy the view and get to experience doing something that they wouldn’t normally do,” Stramel explained.
The events’ guests certainly had a wonderful time as well, as the urge to build community allowed old friends to come together for a fun night out.
Alycia Lentz and Karen Kuhlman were two guests who used the event to reconnect, as they did not have the chance to see each other often.
“Honestly, I’d say my favorite part of the event was getting to talk to everyone,” Lentz said.
“We’ve been to events at the Vue in the past, but we weren’t talking to many people aside from each other, so this event was nice because we got the chance to talk to everyone else,” Kuhlman added.
On top of the candle-making and the flowing of drinks, guests were also entered in a raffle where they could claim one of three prizes chosen specially by Christiansen.