Love on the Seine: the rise of picturesque Paris proposals

Fuelled by social media, some of the city's most famous landmarks are being used as backdrops for the lavish "American-style" proposals.

"We've always dreamed of a fairytale wedding," 44-year-old Dutch businessman Sander Castel told AFP after contacting ApoteoSurprise, an agency that organises picturesque engagements.

A sparkling Cinderella-style horse-drawn carriage drew up before Castel and his partner Shirley Wijgaarts, who was wearing a ballgown, in glitzy Place Vendome.

The coachman produced a pink box with a glass slipper inside, telling them: "I've come to find a princess."

After a romantic ride through chic neighbourhoods, Castel got down on one knee as a violinist played with the twinkling Eiffel Tower in the background.

Wijgaarts, 40, was taken aback, thinking they were just in Paris for a weekend getaway.

"I wasn't expecting it! And of course I said yes. He's my prince," she told AFP.
Spectacular productions
On the banks of the river Seine proposal agencies arrange scenes calibrated for the internet: giant letters spelling out "Marry Me", massive flower arrangements and heart-shaped balloons.

A photo session with the set-up can set clients back anywhere from 300 to 700 euros ($350 to $830).

"There were three agencies five years ago -- there are 25 today, with options for every budget," said Florian Perrault, the founder of Paris Proposal Agency.

Perrault's specialties are rooftops and private boats, which cost around 1,800 euros.

Luxury hotels like the Shangri-La also reserve terraces with views of the Eiffel Tower for their clients.

"We arrange everything for them: flowers, candles, photographer, dinner with a private butler," said Melanie Tessier, its guest relations manager.

The spectacular staging builds loyalty, with clients returning later for anniversaries or family stays, she said.

For particularly affluent clients, high-end agencies create fully tailor-made productions.

"Our clients, they don't want it necessarily for Instagram, but they want it as a bragging moment for their friends, their circle, (to) say, 'Oh, guess what I did for my proposal,'" said Chantelle Marie Streete, co-founder of Kiss Me in Paris.

At one man's request, the agency devised a "Mission Impossible" production for an adventurous young woman: an iPad delivered in the morning launched a scavenger hunt across Paris by sidecar and by boat. A helicopter then carried the couple to a rented chateau.

The cost? Several tens of thousands of euros.
Unforgettable
These luxury clients are typically business executives and entrepreneurs aged 35 to 55 from the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Nordic countries, Singapore and the Middle East.

In addition to the City of Light and New York City, other picturesque proposal hotspots include Venice, the Amalfi Coast, Cappadocia in Turkey, Greece's Santorini and Australia.

"You don't need to have a contract to be together, but if you do get married, the engagement is one of the most romantic elements leading up to that thing called marriage," said Cengiz Ozelsel, who, like his wife Chantelle, was formerly a Wall Street banker before founding Kiss Me in Paris.

There are also other influences at play.

"There is peer pressure, because they've seen what their friends did. There is the expectation that has been planted with an affluent lifestyle. And there is the idea of showing effort," he said.

"Like Valentine's Day, the proposal has become a ritual shaped by an industry," said Florence Maillochon, a sociologist specialising in intimate relationships.

"Not conforming to these stagings can be perceived as a lack of love or romance."

In another high-spec proposal production, a couple visited an art gallery featuring a painting hidden under a veil.

The gallerist agreed to uncover the artwork, revealing to the bride-to-be a painting that depicted them in that very moment.

Weeks earlier, the hopeful groom had planned the clothes they would wear, imagined the scene, and commissioned the painting.

"She turns around, he's down on one knee and she's very emotional," Streete said.