This was a total nightmare on my wedding day. It all started off well enough…months before my wedding, I went in to their Gardena office to look at their furniture, picked out what I wanted, paid for it, designed the layout, and anxiously awaited my wedding so I could see it all put together. But on the day of my wedding, they showed up 2.5 hours late. My wedding was almost half-way over. The contract clearly displayed the correct delivery time and location, the invoice was paid in full weeks before the wedding, and my wedding planner had called them a couple of days before the wedding to confirm everything, BUT THEY WERE STILL 2.5 HOURS LATE. There wasn’t even need for them to take the furniture off the truck.

They didn’t offer any explanation. Even if they could, it wouldn’t have mattered. The bottom line was that the nearly $2500 in lounge furniture (fancy red benches, sofas, and ottomans and a white tufted bar) I had rented was not at my wedding, would not be in my pictures, and was not present for my guests. Were it not for my awesome venue bringing out some furniture, my guests would have been left standing during the entire cocktail hour.

My mom and wedding planner kept all of this a secret from me until the last moment possible on wedding day. I can imagine how frantic they were trying to figure out where the furniture was, if it would arrive in time to be set up, and how they would break it to me if things didn’t work out. I will always regret that my mom had to go through that on my wedding day.

Somewhere in the mix on wedding day, my mom spoke with company owner Clint who apologized profusely, said this had never happened before, and promised that he would issue a full refund right away. After the wedding was over and I got back from my 7-day honeymoon, I expected that the refund would have posted to my credit card or that a refund check would have been waiting for me. Nope. I gave it another week. Still nothing. Finally I called.

I had to talk with a couple of people there to get the refund rolling, and only one of apologized for not showing at the wedding. Not exactly the picture of good customer service. A day or so later, I received a refund check in the mail. Just a check in an envelope. Nothing else. I would have expected that the least that Lounge Appeal could have done would be to send a letter of apology to accompany the check, or some acknowledgement of what the check was for. It was really pathetic.

I’m glad that I now have the refund, but I would have preferred to have had my room full of lounge furniture that would have added so much to the décor of my wedding. Brides agonize over the smallest of details, and the furniture from Lounge Appeal was a big part of my vision for my wedding. I am very disappointed in Lounge Appeal for not coming through on a day that I will remember – and re-live – for the rest of my life. I am also disappointed that I was treated so dismissively after their failure.

Great lounge furniture. Everything went so smooth!