Independent Coast Observer (USA)

Pop the question in space or buy a house?

A French agency, specializing in marriage proposals, has designed a package that is literally out of this world.

ApotheoSurprise, the Parisian company that tailors proposal experiences, is making it

possible for soon-to-be grooms to pop the question, inside a space capsule hung from a balloon floating 35 km (about 22 miles) above the earth. This is coming in 2025.

For the price of 750,000 euros (about $806,000), the stratospheric package includes a fivecourse gourmet dinner with select wines and champagnes prepared and specially chosen by a Michelin-starred chef and served by StellarEmbrace, an AI-powered robot designed to “adapt to the emotions and desires of the couple.”

Meanwhile, a soundtrack comprised of classics like David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” The Beatles’ “Across the Universe,” and The Police’s “Walking on the Moon” plays throughout.

The two-hour ascent, which will take a couple to a point above 99% of earth’s atmosphere, will deliver a panoramic view seen by fewer than a thousand people. For the next three hours, the lovebirds will dine and frolic with a vantage of the Earth’s curvature cutting a halo of blue out from the vast darkness of space as their backdrop.

The mood is now ripe, tensions at their peak, and the gauntlet d’amour begging to be breached. From bent knee comes the question.

Will the answer be “Yes?” Either way, the love module makes its two-hour descent back to Earth. All of it devotedly recorded by StellarEmbrace.

ApotheoSurprise is the brainchild of Nicolas Garreau, a dedicated romantic with a degree in aeronautical engineering, who spent four years living in Venice, Italy.

There Garreau observed how lovers created romance, locked in embrace aboard gondolas and exchanging kisses beneath the iconic Bridge of Sighs. It taught him that some had it right, and some — not so much.

Fueled by imagination and a desire to make every proposal the best, Garreau conjured up experiences that would create extraordinary and indelible experiences that would capture the heart.

According to their website, www.apoteosurprise.com the company offers 30 proposal packages, ranging in price from about 300 to 125 million euros. Package 1 at 300 euros includes a delivery person, who’s actually a magician, to set the scene. Package 29 is the stratospheric love ride, and Package 30, costing 125 million euros, is a week-long trip around the moon. Yes, the moon. The moonshot is slated for 2027.

Anthony Cuesta