LOUNGE 68 IS OH SO POSH

According to its website, Lounge 68 is the haunt of the stars. The cast of Footballers Wives and Emmerdale are supposed to hang out there, together with the likes of Nell McAndrew. 'Dead popular and posh,' is how the Leeds Guide describes it.

What a pity, then, that the owners can't afford to return customers' deposits when they - the owners that is - decide to cancel advance bookings for special occasions. How posh is that? And who's paying for the luxurious veneer of Lounge 68? Don't be fooled. The poshness is only a wafer thin layer, and esily chips like Formica table tops.

See The Wakefield Guardian Published on Thursday 21 June

This week's Wakefield Guardian carries a version of our post about Brasserie Ninety-Nine in its His and Hers section on page 23.

There's also a lovely picture of Jenny and Evan, on the night that Jenny's Mum and Dad helped them celebrate their engagement with a meal at Brasserie-Ninety-Nine, before they all looked round the functions room and Mum and Dad paid their deposit!

What Happened When Brasserie Ninety-Nine in Wakefield Cancelled our Wedding Reception

Jenny and Evan thought their dreams of a stylish wedding reception were coming true when they celebrated their engagement in March 2006 with Jenny's Mum and Dad, Helen and Neil, at Brasserie Ninety-Nine, a restaurant in Wakefield noted for its good cuisine. After enjoying a three course dinner there, we agreed that it would make an ideal venue for their reception. That same evening we reserved the restaurant for their wedding in July 2007 and put down a deposit of £400, after looking round the function room with the restaurant's wedding organiser.

Jenny says, 'The food was really lovely, and they could cater for my severe allergy to nuts and my Mum's intolerance to gluten,' which is a protein found in wheat.

Sitting beside Jenny in their new home in Manchester, Evan adds, 'There was plenty of secure overnight parking as well. The restaurant was only five minutes walk from several good hotels, and ten minutes walk from the station. At the time, some of our friends were planning to come to Wakefield from Manchester by train so we thought it would be ideal for them, too.'

Plans for the perfect wedding reception continued, seemingly on course, until February this year, when we met with the restaurant's manager to finalise the arrangements. We were a little alarmed to find that an accountant was poring over the company's books at the next table, and that the manager - who was late for the meeting – seemed distracted. The fact that the wedding organiser no longer worked for the restaurant was a further cause for concern. But the restaurant had our deposit so we were committed to trying to make the reception work.

The cake, car and flowers were all on order by this time. Helen had begun making the three bridesmaids' outfits, the minister and the church were booked, the wedding suits had been hired and the wedding dress had been collected from a fashionable boutique in Leeds. Even the wedding invitations came back from the printers perfect, and in good time to send to the wedding guests.

The manager had promised to write to us confirming the final details about the menu, so we were really taken aback when he rang Helen out of the blue one day, just twelve weeks before the wedding, to say that he was really sorry but the reception could no longer go ahead.

At first we were not too concerned. The manager offered to transfer the wedding to another venue in Wakefield which he felt sure we would like. We made hasty arrangements to meet Jenny and Evan on the next weekend, but it soon became clear that the new venue was not comparable to Brasserie Ninety-Nine.

'It wasn't as stylish,' Jenny explains. 'Mum and Dad had eaten there and said the food wasn't as nice and, although it was nearer to the station, the car park was very small. We would have had to rely on getting a handful of overnight spaces in a multi-storey car park on a busy Saturday afternoon.'

We began a frantic search for an alternative place to hold the reception. Jenny was close to despair when she received our initial reports. 'I was in tears at one point,' she says, 'After Dad sent me a text message telling me that one promising line of enquiry had drawn a blank. He just said something like "Nothing doing." It wasn't very helpful.'

What surprised us, though, is that it soon become clear there were several good options available. Evan says. 'It shows that people shouldn't despair, even if something important like the reception venue falls through at the last minute.'

Eventually we found a nicer venue than Brasserie Ninety-Nine, a family run hotel in the nearby town of Ossett, with beautiful grounds, a reasonable car park and good food. 'We wouldn't have thought of going there originally,' says Evan, 'Because it's much further away from the station in Wakefield, but our friends soon made alternative arrangements to get there. Some decided to come by car and others said they could book taxis.'

Back in Wakefield, Helen points out that, although Brasserie Ninety-Nine was nice enough when you got inside, and the food was good, the new venue, Dimple Well Lodge, is in a much quieter setting. 'If the weather was nice you could have your drinks on arrival in the garden,' she says. The chef also has a very good reputation.

Jenny and Evan's wedding was arranged for the height of summer, when you might think that all the good places to hold a reception would have been snapped up, but hotels and restaurants sometimes have cancellations, and they do have odd Saturdays which they haven't been able to fill. Without changing the date, or even the time, we have managed to find somewhere really nice.

The only cloud still on the horizon was that we have yet to recover the money we were owed. However, because we paid by credit card, it should be possible to get our money back if we can show that Lawson leisure or Brasserie Ninety-Nine has breached its contract with us.

Heather McBride of the HBOS Consumer Guidance Team confirms that, 'Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act offers credit cardholders a measure of protection involving purchases over £100 where a breach of contract has been proven.'

That means anyone who is booking a special event at a restaurant or hotel must keep any contract or letters of confirmation which the venue owners send them, and copies of any letters or emails which they have exchanged. Always get things in writing if you can. Don't just rely on the phone. People can deny what they've said, or even that they spoke to you at all.

In our case, as often happens in situations like this, there is some confusion about who actually owes us the money they had lost. Brasserie Ninety-Nine was taken over last November by another company, Lawson Leisure of Wetherby near Leeds, which also runs a restaurant called Lounge 68 in Huddersfield.

Although his own staff had met us in February without mentioning the takeover, the general manager of Lawson Leisure, Neil Purves, still argues that it is the previous owners who owe us the money. Mr Purves says, 'I understand that Mr and Mrs Bishop were upset about the deposit, but in my opinion the debt still rests with the previous operators . Our restaurant manager informed the Bishops as soon as Lawson Leisure decided to terminate the lease on Brasserie Ninety-Nine.'

We sent all our correspondence with Mr Purves to the Bank, and now they have promised to give us a full refund. If you are careful to pay by credit card when you're arranging a wedding, you too shouldn't be out of pocket if anything goes wrong.

This is confirmed by Rachael Bailey of the 'Consumer Direct' advice service for the Yorkshire and Humber region. She says, 'Assuming people have proof of all their losses, and they can show that these are directly linked to the breach of contract, they have what is called 'an equal and several claim' against their credit card provider to recoup the costs they have incurred.

'They could go to the Small Claims Court to recover this loss, however that would involve having to pay an initial court fee, so if there is any dispute it is more advisable to pursue the matter with the Financial Ombudsman Service. It's the Ombudsman's role to offer a cost-free alternative to the courts by acting completely independently – just as a judge would.'

In the meantime, Jenny and Evan are getting on with their plans for the wedding. 'I'm glad the nightmare is over and we can look forward again to the big day,' Jenny says. 'Of course everyone wants to plan ahead in an ideal world, but I just want to reassure other couples that there is no need to despair even if things go off the rails very near to the wedding. You may end up thinking you've had a lucky escape.'