Roast & toast: Meet the self-proclaimed romantic comedy wedding officiant

Ever been to a wedding where the officiant states a vow between one husband-to-be to the other, proclaiming that “thou shalt not bite his head off when he gently rouses you from your slumber?”The rom-com wedding officiant, Nico Raineau, explained that “in his defense: it’s 3 a.m., you’re still on the couch covered in cookie crumbs, and the dogs thought you were dead.”Such narrations are par for the course for Raineau, founder of RomCom Weddings.Based in Los Angeles but providing services nationwide — as of 2027, he’ll be officiating in the New York tristate area and New England every July and August — Raineau brings nearly 20 years of experience as a screenwriter and film director to the craft of officiating weddings.With a career spanning Universal Pictures, Netflix, and Hulu, in a post-COVID, post-writers’ strike landscape of studio mergers, Raineau found himself increasingly disenchanted with showbiz.

“We’ve lost the soul of what makes cinema special,” he said.Raineau began searching for a new venue for his talents, and his good friend threw him a lifeline in 2019 when she asked him to officiate her wedding.He soon realized he had a knack for it.In the spring of 2022, Raineau officially launched RomCom Weddings and to date has officiated nearly 100 ceremonies, charging from $999 to $2,000-plus, depending on travel and ceremony specifics.In the past four-plus years, Raineau, who is a certified professional officiant through the International Associate of Professional Wedding Officiants, has come to learn that being a ceremonialist isn’t dissimilar from being a filmmaker.

Nearly everything he was pursuing in the film business he’s found in the wedding industry, but with far fewer barriers to entry and a lot less ego.“I traded telling made-up love stories for sharing real-life rom-coms,” he said.“And I get to perform original stories in front of a live and interactive audience.”His secret sauce for making a memorable ceremony...