Former marketing officer teams up with hubby to set up Haute Royale venture

Her creative passion fuels her events, design business

Maribel Torres-Cuales and her husband, Dante Cuales, find success in their “Haute Royale” business. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

From being an advocate of empowering women by teaching them how to put on makeup, a 36-year-old former marketing officer’s enterprise has grown into something bigger than just cosmetics.

After her stint as a marketing officer at a mall in Davao City as well as trade fairs officer for the European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (ECCP), Cebu-based Maribel Torres-Cuales decided she wanted to do something else.

In 2015, she and her husband Dante Cuales Jr. founded Haute Royale Events & Design to jumpstart this new endeavor fueled by her passion for creating and executing beautifully-crafted events.

“Our first three events were workshops. At the heart of it all, being a woman myself, we really wanted it to be about women empowerment,” she told Cebu Daily News.

The couple shelled out at least P100,000 as capitalization for the business, pooled from their individual savings.

Haute Royale partnered with LuxeLab, a Davao City-based beauty hub, to bring these workshops to women who wanted to be able to look good, dress well, and be confident.

Borrowing the words of French fashion designer and entrepreneur Coco Chanel, whom Cuales greatly admires, she said “there are no ugly women, only lazy ones.”

Cuales’ chosen path not only made use of her experiences in planning, marketing, and events execution, but it has also fulfilled her long-time dream of running her own business.

She graduated with a degree in business administration with a major in marketing from the Ateneo de Davao University.

Her entrepreneurial spirit can be traced back to when she sold designer bags online and eventually retail items after she left college.

After her fifth workshop, Cuales wanted to do her part in helping couples mount their dream wedding without spending too much.

Citing findings from a survey done by the Philippine Statistics Authority in 2015, she said there are at least 300 weddings that happen in Cebu every month.

For wedding design alone, rates vary from P85,000 to P200,000, including church and reception expenses as well as flowers for the entourage.

Haute Royale also does corporate events and other intimate gatherings such as birthdays.

In 2016, the company organized two big events on average each month, a mix of corporate and sponsorship gatherings as well as weddings, set design, and workplace styling.

Brewing concepts

Cuales said she finds joy and fulfillment in brewing concepts, planning events, and creating beautiful designs.

“I really enjoy creating something with my hands. I cannot not create things, most especially those that exhibit beauty and thought,” she added.
Haute Royale faces healthy competition in Cebu, and while there are many event planners here, Cuales said each one has established a niche in their respective markets.

Moving forward, however, Cuales said they intend to focus more on the corporate market, with a thrust on promoting their other services such as corporate events and food styling for hotels and restaurants that need curated photos.

She said they also plan to mount more workshops this year, mostly basic makeup tutorials for the holiday season and seminars on work-life balance which she said she is in the middle of creating modules for.

Cuales said Haute Royale envisions being the event agency of choice, especially for corporate and big events.

“We want to focus more on the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibits) market in Cebu, especially since the province is becoming more attractive to big groups. The new passenger terminal at the (Mactan Cebu International Airport) is set to be operational next year and so we expect more visitors to come,” she said.

Haute Royale was among the participants of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) e-commerce workshop and Kapatid Mentor Me program earlier this year.

Following her involvement with the DTI, Cuales said they are moving toward the direction of digitalizing their services, such as being able to provide event statistics to their clients, which she said is an important gauge of an event’s success.