Two cousins who took over the Quex Park wedding venue and onsite café in 2020 have scooped a highly commended industry award.
Laura Newbery and Molly Stephens, who head up Weddings and Events at Quex, were nominated for The Wedding Industry Award’s category ‘Historic Venue of the Year Award’ within the South East.
The winning spot was taken by RSA House in central London but the Quex site was recognised with the ‘highly commended’ for the duo’s dedication to spectacular events, passion for clients and overall effort representing Thanet.
Mum-of-two Laura, from St Nicholas-at-Wade, said: “Molly and I took over the venue as well as the onsite café – which we renamed Felicity’s Café at Quex after my first born – in January 2020, 10 days before the birth of my second child.
“Covid hit soon after and we were unsure of our future, having taken over two new businesses just before such uncertain times. No weddings could take place within the first year of our business trading.
“Once weddings and events could run again we put our absolute everything into making sure all our ‘covid couples’ as well as newly booked couples had the most unforgettable day.
“After a lot of thought we decided to enter the prestigious ‘The Wedding Industry Awards’ for the category ‘Historic Venue of the Year’ within the South East including London.
“Judging was based on our couples’ reviews directly to the wedding award company for the last trading year as well as multiple industry expert judging our submission and our socials and website.
“We found out we were regional finalists in September which was a huge achievement in itself as there are over 1000 entries to the awards in total.
“We decided to go to the awards night hosted in West Sussex with little expectation of winning anything seeing as we were up against some incredible London based castles and other historic buildings, but more as a little reward to ourselves for all the hard work we have put in over the years.
“Once our category was read out we were absolutely flabbergasted and completely honoured to have been awarded ‘Highly Commended’ for Historic Venue of the Year South East. This wasn’t an award attributed to every category but only those were there was such a close call between two finalists.”
The Quex venue has three licenced ceremony areas – Quex House, a Victorian style gazebo outside and the function room.
Parties of between 30- 130 can be hosted with a seated meal and up to 200 for reception style gathering. The venue can also other events such as wakes, parties, christenings and gala dinners.
Molly, from Bridge, and Laura are now also offering tipi weddings within Quex gardens.
Laura said: “Family is everything to us, our employees are an extension of our family and each and every couple and client we treat as we would want one of our own family members to be treated.
“We don’t believe in our couples and clients paying above the odds either so we make sure that everything is affordable and can fit within realistic budgets.
“The catering for our events and the café is all made in house by our amazing head chef – everything is made fresh and from scratch. This has given such a boost to our small Thanet based company – I said in our Wedding Industry Award interview after our win ‘we may be small but we certainly are mighty’.
“We feel so proud to have put our beautiful little corner of the South East on the map within the wedding industry.”