Garden furniture & 
Patio Furniture:
Garden furniture is often described as a patio set with a table and four or six chairs -plus a parasol of course.
Garden parasols usually fit through a hole in the centre of the table with a heavy base. Patio heaters that run on bottled butane or propane gas have become very popular. These enable your party to continue on a chilly evening.
Plastic garden furniture is usually cheap and waterproof and last you years, but the summer sun and winter frost and wind always destroys them in time. They are always seem to get unreasonable dirty although a quick power wash can do the trick.
Wooden garden furniture also deteriorates through exposure to the elements and needs to be treated with oil or varnish. Teak Wooden garden furniture is the best choice, but there are many "false" teaks that look and feel like the right wood, but tend to warp and shrink more easily. It is most likely that you will not be offered "genuine" teak as is a rare commodity today. Wicker furniture or willow furniture would be worth considering as they look pretty, but Wicker furniture and willow furniture chars and tables do not last outside and do not store well especailly if you have the "destroyer" *anobium punctatum to contend with.
Aluminium garden furniture is awful - don't think of buying it. It will always give you sadness - especially when you pinch your fingers in it - it goes white with corrosion - the steel rivets break etc etc. If you must have metal garden furniture, go you stainless steel with plastic webbing - light and last a long time. If you have aesthetic considerations then you cannot better cast iron garden furniture, but it heavy to move, tends to trap a lot of dirt in the pattern - but cast iron is my first choice - if I can find it at a good price. Aluminium Garden furniture as cast copies are a good substitute as long as they are painted with the proper primers otherwise they tens to corrode - quality manufactures are the ones to choose.
* Anobium Punctatum the Common furniture beetle