Ibarra’s mission is to provide working women with complete, value for money, and quality wedding packages
Before events coordinators became almost as indispensable members of wedding parties as marrying couples, Ibarra’s Party Venues & Catering decided to carve a niche for itself by providing venue and catering services for brides who needed the most help—working women.
Ibarra’s declared as its mission: “To provide working women with complete, value for money, and quality wedding packages.”
Jeanette Lim Macasieb, Ibarra’s executive vice president, says the company realized that working women needed help organizing an important milestone in their lives. Multitasking may be possible but it can be stressful. A working woman bride, who may not be able to leave her job until a few weeks, sometimes even just days, before her wedding, needs help overseeing everything to make her dream wedding come true.
Although since it opened in early 2000, Ibarra’s has also become a popular venue for other social occasions, like birthday celebrations, particularly debuts, and large family get-togethers, its primary mission remains the same—making a wedding less stressful—if not stress-free—and memorable for a working woman.
Macasieb says the company has developed different wedding packages that will suit a marrying couple’s budget and ensure that they get value for their money.
She explains that, while it is traditional in the Philippines for a groom to shoulder all the wedding expenses, “Many of today’s young people share the cost of their wedding, sometimes jointly saving for the big day, so the event does not unduly burden them financially as they start their life as a couple.”
Ibarra’s was named after Juan Crisostomo, the main character in Jose Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere.” Each of its venues, while providing a different ambiance to provide the bride the backdrop she has dreamt of for her wedding, is meant to reflect the grace, confidence and modesty of the man in the National Hero’s historical novel—from an Art Deco edifice to close-to-nature location.
Recently, the company opened the two-story Casa Ibarra on Coral Way, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City.
A showcase for the works of Filipino artists and craftsmen (a mural made of strips of satin fabrics in pastel tones, “Homage to Monet,” by French-Filipino artist Olivia d’Aboville has pride of place in the lobby), Casa Ibarra’s interiors tastefully blend indigenous fabrics like t’nalak and capiz shells on its walls.
The main ballroom Sala de Amor, which can accommodate up to 350 people, boasts of six chandeliers, each with 20,000 pieces of capiz. A grand stairway on one side lets the bridal couple or the debutante make a dramatic and elegant entry to join the guests.
Also on the second floor is Portico Cherie, a balcony that can hold 80 people and may be a venue for Christian wedding ceremonies, weather permitting.
Two smaller ballrooms on the ground floor, Alegria and Hermosa, can each hold 140 people and can be combined if a bigger space is needed. Both also have graceful staircases on the sides.
Learning from dozens of weddings and other events, Casa Ibarra has set aside a nook where people can take or have their photographs taken without being disturbed or disturbing the other guests.
As its name suggests, Ibarra’s packages’ mainstays are the venue and catering.
Each property has its team of chefs to whip up whatever menu is desired – Filipino, Continental, Middle Eastern, etc. But Macasieb says Ibarra’s, the first one-stop shop for events organizing, can easily provide whatever additional people and services clients need, except gowns – event coordinator, flower arrangers, stylists, performers.
Grizelle Matta Lim, operations manager, says a wedding package for as low as P133,000 can include venue, food and beverage, sound system, venue styling and other amenities.
“We offer reasonable packages because we believe every client should be able to get the maximum value for her money,” she says.
Other Ibarra’s venues are Bella Ibarra and Plaza Ibarra in Quezon City, Ibarra’s Garden (the first for the company) in Manila and Villa Ibarra in Tagaytay City. —CONTRIBUTED