Pivotal Media executive producer Andrea Gabourie likes to talk about her upcoming CBC documentary pilot, Let’s Get Hitched, as portraying the stories and love stories of real-life couples headed to a no-fuss City Hall wedding.

But the pilot is also very much her story, because Gabourie’s first of three weddings was a bit of a quickie ceremony at City Hall.

“We were in a rush to get it done,” she recalled to Playback Daily.

It wasn’t exactly a shotgun wedding for the bride-to-be, who is still very much married to writer/director/producer Mitchell Gabourie of Headtrip Films, a co-producer on the project.

To be sure, Andrea had no trace of the tummy or a need to avoid family embarrassment.

Instead, Mitchell at the time had been approved for a U.S. green card and Andrea had a 90-day window to file to get her own green card.

All they had to do was get legally married, sooner rather than later.

It’s the stuff of countless Hollywood movies and TV scripts: what’s a girl to do when a green card is on the line?

“He gave me a business proposal,” Andrea remembered, a proposal sweetened by the promise of a more formal wedding down the road.

That came six months later on a beach in Costa Rica.

And their third wedding became a reception in Toronto for friends and family.

But first Andrea and Mitchell and two witnesses had to take time out from work to gather at Toronto City Hall on one Wednesday at 2:30 in the afternoon and in front of a friendly officiant.

It was quick, cheap and convenient.

“In 15 minutes, it was over. We just went and got married and it was like McDonalds,” Andrea said.

Now the Gabouries, inspired by their own experience, are casting their Let’s 
Get 
Hitched pilot, and are eyeing real-life couples that similarly will forego the traditional, extravagant wedding and tie the knot at City Hall in either Toronto or Ottawa.

Andrea points to a host of reasons for doing so: avoiding steep wedding costs, following up a secret romance with a discreet wedding, or going to City Hall for a “real” marriage before immigration catches wind that someone’s visa expired.

Or someone may have been diagnosed with a very serious illness and a couple needs to dramatically change their wedding date before death does tragically have them part.

“This is not your typical wedding show,” Andrea warns.

That means the TV pilot may feature couples looking to do a themed wedding where they dress as zombies or superheroes in ways that their church, synagogue or mosque may not accept.

The pilot may also feature same-sex couples, or divorced couples remarrying, or anyone looking to say “I do” without a long aisle-walk in front of interfering in-laws.

Filming 
is 
set for
 late 
summer 
and 
early 
 fall.

Couples will be asked to share their ceremony on camera and do a short interview to tell their stories.

In some cases, the crew will follow the couples to their photo shoot, or to post-ceremony receptions.