A thriving wedding event business will be paused and a bustling café closed at Quex Park in the coming months due to issues beyond the owners’ control.
Both businesses are run by cousins Laura Newbery and Molly Stephens and were launched in 2020, just weeks before covid hit the UK.
St Nicholas-at-Wade mum Laura and Molly, from Bridge, say Weddings at Quex is paused from the end of this year as changes at Quex mean the spaces they have been using will no longer be available.
There are also issues with planning permission for Felicity’s café that the pair worked to resolve when it came to light some three years after they took the lease but this has not succeeded.
The café will close at the end of October.
The pair’s Flowers and Felicity’s café on The Broadway in Broadstairs and FiFi’s by Felicity’s catering company are not affected and will continue to run.
In a statement on social media the duo said: “It is with truly broken hearts that we share the news that Felicity’s Café at Quex will be closing by the end of October, bringing an incredible chapter of almost seven years to an end. This is not a decision we ever wanted to make.
“Felicity’s has always been so much more than a café to us. Named after Laura’s daughter, our little Fifi, it was inspired by our much-loved Little Granny, Jean, our Queen Jean, who taught us the importance of homemade food, using good local produce and, above all, making people feel welcome.
“When we took over the café in January 2020, it was a quiet little space tucked away at Quex. We had a dream of turning it into a destination in its own right, somewhere people would choose to come, meet friends, celebrate, eat good food and feel at home.
“Eight weeks later, Covid closed our doors. Somehow, from those strangest of beginnings, Felicity’s grew. We delivered afternoon teas across Thanet, renovated the café, built our own customer base and, when we were finally able to reopen properly, watched this little café become everything we had hoped it could be.
“That is perhaps the hardest part of all. Felicity’s is not closing because people stopped coming or because we stopped believing in it. We are closing a café that we love, that has an incredible team and an extraordinarily loyal community around it, because we simply haven’t been able to give it the secure home it deserves.
“Unfortunately, behind everything we were building, there was an uncertainty surrounding the café building itself that we were completely unaware of when we took it on.
“When we took over the café in 2020, invested in the space and began building Felicity’s into the business it is today, we did so without being made aware that the temporary planning permission for the café building had already expired in 2018.
“We only discovered this in 2023, three years into running the business, when we began exploring an extension because the café had become so busy. Since then, we have spent a huge amount of time trying to find a way to secure Felicity’s future at Quex. “Temporary planning permission was eventually granted until December 2026, but despite everything we have built here, the investment we have made, the employment we have created and the loyal customer base that supports us, we have been unable to secure the permanent, long term future that a business like Felicity’s needs.
“For the past three years we have explored every avenue we could and searched for another place for Felicity’s to call home. Sadly, the right solution hasn’t come together.”
Laura and Molly, who employ seven full-time and around 20 temp staff across both businesses and use an array pf local suppliers, say while they are ‘devastated’ they are also proud of the businesses, and teams, they have built.
Weddings at Quex was awarded ‘highly commended’ at The Wedding Industry Award’s category ‘Historic Venue of the Year Award 2024’.
The business was recognised for the duo’s dedication to spectacular events, passion for clients and overall effort representing Thanet.
It is hoped that there is still a future for the wedding venture but for now it will pause from December 31st.
A statement from the business says: “There are lots of changes taking place across Quex Park and the Powell-Cotton Museum, and the spaces we have called home for the past seven years will no longer be available to us in the same way beyond the end of this year.
“This isn’t a decision we have made because we have fallen out of love with Quex, with weddings, or with what we have built here. Far from it.
“But one thing we have always been completely uncompromising about is the experience we give our couples.
“When someone trusts us with one of the biggest days of their lives, we need to know wholeheartedly that we can deliver everything we have promised. We need certainty around the venue, the spaces, the facilities and the way the day will run. Without that certainty beyond 2026, we don’t feel it would be right to continue taking bookings and asking couples to place that trust in us.
“Every wedding already booked with us for 2026 will, of course, go ahead exactly as planned, with the same team, care and attention we have always given. All of our couples have already been contacted directly and are fully informed, so there is absolutely no change for anyone currently booked with us.
“We are also still very much open for weddings and events through to the end of December 2026. What happens after that is something we genuinely hope is a pause, rather than an ending.
“There are exciting plans for the future of Quex Park and we are keeping conversations open about what a future Weddings & Events at Quex could look like within a new venue. When there is a space that allows us to deliver weddings in the way we believe they should be delivered, we would love nothing more than to bring Weddings at Quex back to life.
“Until then, we need to step away rather than offer anything less than the standard we have spent seven years building.
“When we started this business together as cousins, we could never have imagined where it would take us.
“We built Weddings at Quex from the ground up, navigated our way through COVID when the entire wedding industry came to a standstill, and came out the other side to create hundreds of weddings, parties and celebrations that we will never forget.
“There have been ridiculously early mornings, very late nights, sunshine, storms, muddy fields, impossible deadlines, tears, laughter and some of the happiest memories of our lives.
“But we’ve always said that this business has never really just been about weddings. It’s been about people.
“Our team have never simply been employees. They became our family. We have grown up together, supported each other through life’s biggest moments and somehow always managed to pull together when it mattered most.
“And the same can be said for so many of our couples. What started as an enquiry or a wedding booking has so often turned into friendships that have lasted long after the last dance.
“Quex itself will always be incredibly personal to both of us.
“Molly first came here at 15 years old as a Saturday girl, waitressing at weddings, never imagining that one day she would own and run the very wedding business she had grown up working in.
“Laura has grown here too, building businesses, raising a family and somehow weaving Quex into so many chapters of her life.
“Together, we have poured an enormous amount of ourselves into this place. And although that makes this moment incredibly difficult, it also makes us unbelievably proud.”
The pair have thanked couples, staff and suppliers as well as the family, friends and community that supported them and say they are ‘overwhelmed’ by the outpouring of love and support from people across Thanet and further afield.
They hope to make the remaining trading months a celebration of the businesses and people are urged to pop into the café and share memories.
I saw this on their FB page, terrible news! Having said that, the service was always better when that lovely lady with the glasses and plaits worked there.