When Michael graduated from college and got an adult job, the first thing he spent his paycheck on was a king size mattress. Because after sleeping on twin extra long dorm beds for the four preceding years of our relationship, having enough space for two people to sprawl out in a host of geometric shapes felt like the world’s greatest extravagance. And at first, it was. But over the past decade, the once extravagant king bed started to become a real pain in my… back.
Mattress Shopping Is Awkward
But when it came time to research a replacement, the last place I wanted to go was a mattress store. Because the mattress store process is awkward for me. Between the weird showroom vibe and the “let’s lie down on this and pretend we’re not in public” aspect of things, buying a mattress is only slightly less uncomfortable than buying a car. But buying a mattress on the Internet seemed equally daunting. So when we were given the opportunity to work with Leesa, a new online mattress company that delivers high quality mattresses straight to your door for less than $1,000, I was intrigued. But I was also skeptical. Because as much as I love testing things out on behalf of APW, this is my bed we’re talking about. And things go south in my home right quick if our sleep is compromised.
But any concerns were immediately put to rest as soon as I started looking into Leesa. In almost every head-to-head comparison I found (we’re talking non-sponsored posts y’all) Leesa came out on top as the superior mattress in both quality and comfort. Plus, I discovered, for every ten mattresses they sell, Leesa will donate one to a shelter.
Here’s how the process worked for us:
- Order your mattress on Leesa.com. They offer mattresses of all sizes, from twin to California king, starting at $525 (and always with free shipping).
- Your mattress is then made to order. We were told it would take up to a week to assemble, but were pleasantly surprised when a Leesa box showed up on our doorstep a few days later.
- Leesa mattresses are created from layers of memory foam, but they managed to fit a king size mattress in a box that is shorter than I am, so it was easy to get it into our bedroom and ready for setup.
- Next, we just followed the instructions on the box, which went something like: take Leesa mattress out of the box, making sure the orientation of the mattress is correct (the stripes go at the foot of the bed); worry for a second that maybe it’s going to be a very thin mattress because the packaging is so small; peel away plastic, and watch awe-struck as it expands into a real live mattress that might actually be thicker than the one you had before.
It took about twenty-four-hours for the mattress to expand the full ten inches (and for the weird packaging smell to go away—which, don’t worry, it definitely goes away), but it was otherwise sleep ready within a few hours. And holy crap, y’all. Is this what I’ve been missing?
Our bed is our sanctuary
Our old mattress was one of those traditional coil mattresses, whereas Leesa is made from three foam layers, including two inches of memory foam and two inches of a really cool latex-like foam called Avena that’s perforated to keep your body cool. So while I was excited to switch to a memory-foam bed that would better support my back, and cradle my body in all the weird positions I like to sleep (specifically that one T-Rex position on my stomach that kept making my arms go numb), I was pleasantly surprised by the tiny ways it has also been making my married routines a little more pleasant. For example, since the Leesa mattress has basically no motion transfer, I no longer wake Michael up when I do my running-leap-to-avoid-the-monsters-slash-serial-killers-under-the-bed after he’s already asleep. (See below.)
What a good mattress made me realize is that our bed is our sanctuary. It’s where we spend roughly a third of our lives together, and where the, um, most fun parts of our marriage take place. And a sanctuary shouldn’t suck.
The first 50 APW readers to order a Leesa mattress can get $75 off your order when you use the promo code WEDDING75 at checkout! Click here to get started.
This post was sponsored by Leesa, a new online mattress company that ships luxury memory foam mattresses directly to your door, in a box about the size of a mini-fridge, for just $525 (and up). For every ten mattresses they sell, Leesa will also donate a mattress to a shelter. And as an added bonus, the first 50 APW readers who order a Leesa mattress will get $75 off their purchase. Just click here, and then use the code WEDDING75 at checkout. Thanks Leesa for helping make the APW mission possible!
