Price of a Paris Marriage Proposal: How Much Does It Cost?
By Nicolas, the proposal expert in Paris | August 20, 2026
If you’re about to propose to the woman you love, there’s one question you’re bound to ask yourself: how much should you budget for your marriage proposal?
Since 2006, ApoteoSurprise has organised more than 3,500 marriage proposals in Paris, giving us the opportunity to experience every possible scenario — from proposals planned on a budget of just a few dozen euros to the most spectacular productions imaginable.
The good news is that there is no such thing as an ideal budget. A marriage proposal can cost just a few euros or several million! It all depends on the setting, the production, the level of personalisation... and, of course, what you have in mind.
So, in practical terms, how much does a marriage proposal cost?
How much does a marriage proposal cost?
If you’re about to propose to the woman you love, wondering how much it’s going to cost is THE big question! And there’s absolutely no reason to feel guilty about asking it, even if, at first glance, thinking about money seems like the complete opposite of romance.
But let’s think about it for a moment: isn’t love supposed to mean being ready to reach for the stars? So which is it? What should you do? Where do you even start?
Let’s reassure you right away: the success and magic of a marriage proposal don’t necessarily depend on how much you spend. As long as you follow the essential steps needed to create a genuine emotional build-up, whatever your budget, your sweetheart’s reaction is likely to involve the same things: her hands over her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes and a huge “yes” that will stay with both of you forever!
Of course, we’re not talking here about the price of the engagement ring, which is somewhat harder to cut back on. But when it comes to the marriage proposal itself, you can absolutely keep the cost to a minimum. With little or no budget, it all comes down to choosing the right setting and getting the timing just right: the two of you alone on a beach at sunset after an already wonderful day (although that’s not always easy to plan in advance), taking a stroll through a particularly peaceful and romantic park, or even at home, with a surprise candlelit dinner you’ve prepared for her — especially if you normally never cook...
What really matters is showing her that you’ve invested your time, that you’ve thought long and hard about how to surprise her because, to you, “she’s one of a kind.” And remember: as far as women are concerned, if Prince Charming isn’t there on the day of her marriage proposal, he never will be!
For just a few dozen euros, you can already give her an original bouquet of flowers specially designed for the occasion. We invite you to discover our article about the best flowers to give for a marriage proposal — everything you need to know to become the perfect romantic man!
From €100 upwards, we come to the obvious choice: a romantic dinner at a restaurant. And yes, most men propose in a restaurant! But beware of the classic trap: definitely don’t slip the engagement ring into a champagne glass!
From there, the cost can quickly start to rise if you decide to bring in a musician or photographer.
Then you move on to private venues, cruises and trips. Because yes, proposing during a trip can be incredibly tempting, can’t it? Venice, Rome, Santorini, New York and Bali can all provide an extraordinary setting for your declaration of love. And if you’re still undecided about the destination, we’ve selected 10 must-visit cities around the world for a marriage proposal.
But if you didn’t know it already, the world capital of marriage proposals is... Paris!
Marriage proposal price in paris
Wherever you come from, one thing is certain: Paris is the perfect city for a marriage proposal.
For €0, the French capital already offers an extraordinary backdrop, centuries of history, iconic landmarks, the Eiffel Tower, bridges, gardens and traditional Parisian cafés. Quite simply, everything about Paris seems to suggest that the city was designed for one purpose alone: giving lovers the perfect setting to declare their love!
If you’re happy to make the most of this exceptional setting, you can absolutely have a marriage proposal for free, perhaps along the banks of the Seine or while wandering through the cobbled streets of Montmartre. All you need to do is choose a beautiful spot... and take the plunge.
But let’s be honest: Paris is still Paris. As soon as you want to turn this natural backdrop into a fully organised experience, the costs start to add up: a dinner cruise on the Seine, hotel-room decorations, a photographer, an artist or even the private hire of a venue can quickly take your budget into the hundreds or even thousands of euros.
And this is precisely where things get interesting: in Paris, there is really no upper limit to how much you can spend on a marriage proposal. It all depends on the level of surprise, personalisation and staging you want to create.
Marriage proposal price with a photographer
The huge popularity of marriage proposals in Paris since 2023–2024 has had an effect you’re going to love if you’re thinking of proposing in the City of Light: photographer prices have fallen by 75% over the past 10 years!
When ApoteoSurprise became the world’s first agency specialising exclusively in marriage proposals in 2006, photographers were still using pricing structures based on the services they were familiar with: wedding photo shoots and event photography.
For a marriage proposal requiring an hour of on-site coverage, the vast majority of photographers charged €600. After lengthy negotiations, some would eventually agree to cover a marriage proposal for €400, after first listing all the usual reasons: taxes, social security contributions, the cost of living and so on.
But when marriage proposals in Paris began generating worldwide buzz from 2023 onwards, professional photographers had to adapt to a new standard rate: €200. This rate was notably driven by event agencies and wedding planners, who conveniently neglected to tell their clients that they were actually the ones taking the photos during the marriage proposal.
So, rather than lose this “new market”, professional photographers completely changed the way they worked. They accepted the new rate and adapted their working methods: more direct, more modern and more efficient. That’s the Instagram generation for you!
At ApoteoSurprise, we went one step further. With 20 years of experience organising marriage proposals in Paris, we managed to negotiate an exclusive rate of €150 with some genuinely excellent photographers, for a photo shoot lasting up to one hour. If you want to take things further and find out how to find the best marriage proposal photographer in Paris, we’ve dedicated a full article to the subject.
But beware, your surprises don’t end there: on the Iéna Bridge, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, you’ll find Indian photographers offering photo shoots for just €10! These street photographers have almost taken the place of the vendors selling miniature Eiffel Towers...
Marriage proposal price at a restaurant in paris
Admit it, it’s a tempting idea: a romantic dinner at a fine-dining restaurant in Paris, with your marriage proposal as the highlight of the evening. How could you not consider it when you’re thinking about proposing in the City of Light?
Yes, the idea sounds perfect, but the real challenge is finding a restaurant where both of you will feel completely at ease. Paris is certainly not short of fine-dining and Michelin-starred restaurants, but luxury doesn’t always come with the intimate, cosy atmosphere you’re looking for when declaring your love. Luxury and intimacy don’t always go hand in hand.
The figure is almost unbelievable: in the French capital, a tiny treasure trove of wonders measuring just 11 km from east to west and 9 km from north to south, there are more than 10,000 restaurants!
There are so many restaurants in Paris that you can easily enjoy a wonderful evening for less than €120, including wine and champagne.
But since your research can quickly turn into a treasure hunt — and you have better things to do if you want to make the most of your upcoming marriage proposal — we’re drawing on our 20 years of experience organising marriage proposals in Paris to bring you our top 10 restaurants with a view of the Eiffel Tower.
And if you’re thinking of proposing to your sweetheart in spring or summer, we also have a ranking of the best rooftop venues in Paris.
We’re also going to let you in on a little secret, so you won’t need to look any further. In our view, the best restaurant in Paris isn’t actually a restaurant at all — it’s a boat. And it doesn’t stay in one place: it sails along Paris’s most beautiful avenue, the Seine. In our opinion, the best company for a dinner cruise is Bateaux Parisiens. With departure from the foot of the Eiffel Tower at 8:30 p.m. and return at 11 p.m., you’ll enjoy an absolutely magical experience for between €250 and €500 in total, depending on the seating you choose aboard the panoramic boat.
If you want to take things a step further and enjoy an evening worthy of a movie, ApoteoSurprise has created a restaurant marriage proposal scenario featuring a spectacular surprise: just before dessert, a bouquet of roses is brought to your table by a waiter who is in on the plan. Your sweetheart will quickly spot a heart-shaped metal box hidden among the flowers. She’ll open it and discover a message inside. As you can imagine, she’ll read your message before you get down on one knee and ask her to marry you! This scenario is available for €390.
Marriage proposal price at the Eiffel Tower
Whether or not you should propose at the Eiffel Tower is a debate in itself. You could talk about it for hours. But to spare you all that hassle, we’ve prepared a complete guide to marriage proposals at the Eiffel Tower.
To put it simply: while Tom Cruise did propose to Katie Holmes at the Eiffel Tower in 2005, we wouldn’t recommend following in his footsteps. You have far more to gain by making better use of the tower — using the monument as the backdrop for your marriage proposal! When the Eiffel Tower starts to sparkle, what could make a more spectacular backdrop than this 330-metre-high icon?
If you absolutely insist on declaring your love on the monument itself, you can visit the Eiffel Tower and propose for just a few dozen euros for the two of you — surrounded by a sea of tourists. Not exactly the best idea.
For an average price of €500 to €900 for two, you can instead enjoy an exceptional gastronomic experience at Le Jules Verne, the two-Michelin-starred restaurant on the second floor. One thing is certain, though: you probably won’t be the only man getting down on one knee and proposing that evening...
To make the Eiffel Tower the perfect backdrop for your marriage proposal, ApoteoSurprise has created several incredibly romantic scenarios, which we’ll describe in more detail later. But if you want the tower to be the centrepiece of your declaration of love, the scenario we recommend is our magician marriage proposal scenario:
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You make your way to Place Jacques Rueff on the Champ-de-Mars (never do this on the Seine side or at the Trocadéro, where you’ll simply be lost among the tourists!), and a photographer is waiting for you for a short photo shoot — because you’ll obviously want to capture the memories.
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During the photo shoot, a magician suddenly appears and asks your sweetheart whether she is indeed [her first name], explaining that he has an envelope to give her.
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Confused, she barely has time to answer before the envelope suddenly bursts into flames, revealing a rose.
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The mysterious man then asks your sweetheart to choose a card at random from his deck.
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She picks a card and discovers... your message of love.
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She looks into your eyes — and suddenly sees you getting down on one knee in front of her, while the photographer captures the moment. In reality, the photographer was there solely to immortalise this unique moment!
The price of this surprise scenario is €290.
Price of a marriage proposal in a paris limousine: €490
We have a little surprise in store for you: with our limousine marriage proposal scenario, you’ll have the Eiffel Tower as the backdrop to your proposal in the most spectacular way! It’s an added bonus!
For €490, this ApoteoSurprise scenario includes a one-hour limousine ride through some of Paris’s most beautiful neighborhoods, complete with a bottle of champagne, a box of macarons and a personalized musical experience.
We strongly recommend arranging a romantic dinner before the limousine arrives. If you need any help, feel free to contact us and we’ll suggest a few restaurants that fit your budget.
Having dinner at a romantic restaurant before the limousine appears serves two purposes:
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It gives you both a chance to enjoy yourselves and relax — the perfect prelude to subtly building the emotional crescendo that will lead to your declaration of love.
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It takes your beloved’s attention away from the possibility of a proposal: since you won’t have proposed at the restaurant (unlike most men), she’ll never imagine that a spectacular marriage proposal is about to follow!
We recommend leaving the restaurant at either 9:30 p.m. or 10:30 p.m. for the surprise arrival of the limousine.
And now for the best part...
The limousine will stop on the Bir-Hakeim Bridge, offering you a breathtaking view of the Eiffel Tower.
A few moments later, the Eiffel Tower will begin to sparkle. Trust us: in that moment, you’ll feel as though the monument is sparkling just for the two of you!
Suddenly, a panoramic screen inside the vehicle will come to life, with lights illuminating one after another to spell out a single word: your beloved’s first name. Hearts will then appear, followed by your marriage proposal message!
The screen’s lights will be so bright that they’ll almost make you forget about the sparkling Eiffel Tower!
And of course, the limousine will be spacious enough for you to get down on one knee, if you wish...
Price of a marriage proposal at disneyland paris with a sky banner: €2,490
Disney still has the power to make people dream — we see it every day!
There are countless marriage proposals at Disneyland Paris. Some women will find the idea magical; others may find it a little childish. It all comes down to personal taste.
Planning a marriage proposal at Disneyland is simple: you book your tickets, one or more nights at one of the park’s hotels, and you’re all set. Well, almost.
Disneyland Paris also offers plenty of ways to make the occasion magical: proposing in front of the castle, having dinner at one of the park’s restaurants, enjoying a meal with Disney characters, staying at a Disney hotel, or even arranging a tailor-made celebration with the Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings team. In short, the possibilities are endless, and the cost of a marriage proposal at Disneyland can range from the price of admission tickets to several thousand euros for a fully personalized experience.
But if you really want to create an unforgettable surprise and go all out, we’ve come up with a scenario that should give you maximum thrills: a giant banner carrying your marriage proposal message suddenly appears in the sky while you’re flying over Disneyland! Yes, from up there, the entire park will be yours!
Here’s what awaits you:
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A Bentley picks you up from your home and takes you to a private airfield.
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You each board your own plane, with a pilot at the controls. Takeoff!
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After flying over the Morin Valley, Disneyland Paris suddenly comes into view.
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At an altitude of 300 meters, you fly around the park. The attractions, hotels and castle are all right below you!
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And suddenly... a huge banner appears in the sky, displaying your marriage proposal message!
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You share your reactions over your headsets, each of you in your own plane. Completely crazy!
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Back on the ground, champagne, roses and chocolates will be waiting for you.
The price of this spectacular scenario is €2,490.
Price of a marriage proposal in paris with a cinderella carriage: €1,990
Since we were talking about Disney, let’s stay in the world of fairy tales for a little while longer...
What if you gave your beloved the chance to live out her very own Cinderella story for one magical evening?
Have her wear a princess dress and put on your finest prince’s costume, because the two of you are about to experience a truly magical, once-in-a-lifetime moment!
The Cinderella carriage marriage proposal scenario created by ApoteoSurprise begins at Place Vendôme, in front of the Ritz Paris:
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The real Cinderella carriage suddenly appears! You can simply give your name to the coachman or, if you want to play along right to the end, ask him whether he is waiting for a real princess. He’ll say yes... before revealing your beloved’s first name!
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The coachman then hands her a luxurious box containing a chocolate slipper. She discovers her shoe size engraved on the sole: the princess he was waiting for has indeed arrived!
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You both climb aboard. Champagne, macarons and red roses await you. The coachman cracks his whip, and you’re off on a one-hour journey through some of the most beautiful neighborhoods of Paris!
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The Champs-Élysées, Avenue Montaigne, Place de la Concorde, Pont Alexandre III... Paris unfolds before you to the rhythm of the horses’ hooves.
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When you reach Pont d’Iéna, the Eiffel Tower begins to sparkle. This is the moment to make your marriage proposal!
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The evening then continues along the banks of the Seine, where a prestigious boat awaits you for a VIP dinner cruise, complete with champagne, wine and a gourmet dinner.
The price of this Cinderella scenario is €1,990.
You can also personalize the experience with several options:
+ €490 — replace the chocolate slipper with a glass replica of Cinderella’s slipper from the Disney film, personalized with the engraving “Princess + First Name.”
+ €200 — a violinist performs two pieces of your choice as the carriage arrives at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
+ €150 — enjoy paparazzi-style photography throughout the experience, from your departure at Place Vendôme to your marriage proposal beneath the Eiffel Tower.
Price of a marriage proposal by boat on the seine with a shower of roses: €5,990
After Disneyland and Cinderella, let’s switch worlds completely. No castle or princess this time, but a private yacht, a gourmet cruise and... a thousand red roses!
The marriage proposal by boat under a shower of a thousand roses created by ApoteoSurprise is one of our most spectacular experiences. And let us warn you: it’s hard to imagine anything more spectacular!
Here’s what awaits you:
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A Rolls-Royce picks you up from your home and takes you to the banks of the Seine, where your private boat is waiting for you.
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You set off on a three-hour cruise, with champagne, cocktail canapés and a gourmet dinner, while Paris’s most iconic landmarks glide past before your eyes.
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After around 45 minutes of cruising, the boat slows down and comes to a stop beneath Pont des Arts. The maître d’hôtel then invites you to make your way to the front deck.
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A single rose falls from the sky. Then five. Ten. Fifty. A hundred. And suddenly... a spectacular shower of red roses rains down on the boat!
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Within minutes, nearly a thousand roses cover the deck. This is your moment to get down on one knee and make your marriage proposal, as amazed onlookers watch from Pont des Arts and the banks of the Seine, along with passengers aboard the sightseeing boats cruising around you.
The price of this scenario is €5,990, including Rolls-Royce transportation, a private yacht, dinner, champagne and the shower of a thousand roses.
You can also add a professional photographer for €300 or a violinist for €200.
If you’re working with a more limited budget, don’t worry: for a few hundred euros, you can easily privatize a small boat on the Seine and make your marriage proposal over a glass of champagne.
How much do apoteosurprise’s different marriage proposal scenarios cost?
Since 2006, ApoteoSurprise has been creating and organizing marriage proposals in Paris. Over the past twenty years, we have helped thousands of couples and designed hundreds of scenarios, always with the same ambition: to turn a few minutes of your life into a truly cinematic experience!
ApoteoSurprise was the world’s first agency to specialize exclusively in organizing marriage proposals. Over the years, our scenarios have attracted the attention of media outlets around the world, and numerous television crews have followed us behind the scenes to discover how these elaborate productions are brought to life.
And perhaps that’s the most exciting part: when you choose an ApoteoSurprise scenario, you’re not simply booking a service. You’re stepping into a real-life movie, with the two of you as the main characters.
So, how much does it all cost? Here’s a selection of some of the other scenarios created by ApoteoSurprise, along with their prices:
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Marriage Proposal with a Dove — €390
A dove is presented to your beloved and delivers your marriage proposal message to her.
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Marriage Proposal during an Opera Dinner — €690
Two opera singers join you at your table and perform two famous opera arias.
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Marriage Proposal in a Hot-Air Balloon with a Poem — €990
You fly over Paris in a hot-air balloon while an actress dressed as an angel recites a poem to your beloved.
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Marriage Proposal during a Treasure Hunt in Montmartre — €1,290
A journey through Montmartre featuring encounters with several characters who gradually lead you toward the proposal.
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Marriage Proposal with a Violin and Vocal Duo — €1,690
A violinist and a singer surprise you as you make your way to Paris’s most secret restaurant.
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Marriage Proposal with a Diver — €1,990
Inside an aquarium, a diver suddenly appears behind the glass, holding a sign displaying your message.
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Marriage Proposal with “MARRY ME” Letters at the Eiffel Tower — €1,990
Giant “MARRY ME” letters are set up facing the Eiffel Tower.
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Marriage Proposal at the Cinema — €2,490
You become the hero of a film shown in a movie theater before making a surprise appearance in the auditorium.
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Hot-Air Balloon Marriage Proposal — €2,990
You take off from the grounds of a château for a hot-air balloon flight, with dinner served on board.
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Marriage Proposal on the Wings of an Airplane — €3,990
A second aircraft joins your plane in flight and displays your love message across its wings.
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Marriage Proposal with Suspended Candles — €4,990
Hundreds of candles suspended throughout the grounds of an abbey reveal your love message.
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Marriage Proposal with Fireworks — €4,990
After dinner at a private château, a fireworks display lights up the sky, forming a giant heart above the gardens.
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Marriage Proposal with the Phantom of the Opera — €5,990
The legendary Phantom of the Opera makes several appearances during your visit to a theater before revealing his identity on stage.
And this is only a glimpse: ApoteoSurprise scenarios cover a remarkably broad range of prices, from a few hundred euros to several thousand.
Why does the price of a marriage proposal vary so much?
You only have to look at the different scenarios we’ve just presented to see how dramatically the price of a marriage proposal can vary. But why such a huge difference between a proposal costing a few hundred euros and one costing several thousand?
Quite simply because an organized marriage proposal involves far more than the few minutes when you get down on one knee.
First, the setting can make a huge difference: a restaurant, boat, carriage, limousine, château, hot-air balloon, movie theater, theater or fully private venue — the costs are obviously not the same.
Then there is the number of people involved and the role each of them plays: photographer, videographer, musician, singer, actor, magician, chauffeur, maître d’hôtel, crew... The more elaborate the production, the more people it takes to bring it to life.
Décor, costumes, set design and technical equipment also come into play. A spectacular table like the one you see here, with its candelabras, flowers and fine tableware, is only one part of the experience: it forms part of a fully staged and recreated setting, complete with costumed staff. The logistics involved are obviously far more extensive than simply having a bouquet of roses delivered to a restaurant.
You also have to factor in transportation, coordination, preparation time and the length of the experience. Some scenarios last only a few dozen minutes; others involve several vehicles, multiple locations and several teams working for several hours.
Finally, there is the level of personalization and complexity involved. The more you want to create a perfectly orchestrated sequence of surprises, the more work has to be done behind the scenes beforehand.
And that is where much of the work actually happens: while you are experiencing your marriage proposal, you see none of the intricate operation unfolding behind the scenes. Vendors briefed, schedules synchronized, vehicles coordinated, props prepared, performances rehearsed... Everything has to be ready at exactly the right moment, without your beloved suspecting a thing. The goal is for everything to feel seamless and magical for both of you!
It is this invisible production that can transform a simple marriage proposal into a truly immersive experience.
How far can the budget for a marriage proposal go?
T
We’ve started this article with marriage proposals that can be arranged for a few hundred or a few thousand euros. But when you decide to take the experience much further, the possibilities suddenly reach a whole new level.
At ApoteoSurprise, we also create productions that involve resources far beyond those of a conventional event.
Here are some of the most extraordinary experiences we’ve ever imagined:
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An aerial patrol — After a gourmet lunch at a château housing a Michelin-starred restaurant, four aircraft suddenly appear in the sky, perform a series of spectacular manoeuvres and eventually draw a huge heart in white smoke, just for the two of you.
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A drone show — After a gourmet dinner at Le Pré Catelan, you head to Longchamp Racecourse by horse-drawn carriage. A fleet of hundreds of drones then rises into the night sky, creating spectacular formations to music before revealing your marriage proposal message high above Paris.
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Dinner in the stratosphere — You take your seats in a pressurised capsule that carries you to an altitude of 35 kilometres. Above 99% of the Earth’s atmosphere, you dine with a view of the curvature of the Earth before making your marriage proposal at the very edge of space.
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A marriage proposal around the Moon — With this extraordinary project, available from 2030, the idea is no longer to fly over Paris but to leave Earth altogether. After several months of preparation, you embark on a space mission to lunar orbit. And when your capsule flies over the far side of the Moon, hundreds of thousands of kilometres from Earth, you ask her to marry you.
So, how high can the price go? Several tens of millions of euros! Ultimately, it can go as far as our imagination... and the technology required to turn that imagination into reality. At this level, ApoteoSurprise is no longer simply organising a marriage proposal: we are creating a genuine Hollywood-scale production, with you and your future wife at the very heart of the story.
Whatever your budget, the most important thing remains the same: creating a marriage proposal that reflects who you are as a couple and tells a meaningful part of your story.
Nicolas Garreau
Founder of ApoteoSurprise
Proposal planner since 2006
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