How They Met: For TV producers Andrea and Mitch Gabourie, it all happened in Costa Rica

Behind-the-scenes dream team Andrea and Mitch Gabourie will debut the second season of their latest show, Hello Goodbye, on Oct. 21 at 8:30 p.m. The husband-and-wife duo are executive producers for the series that takes place in Pearson Airport. They also produce the CBC kids’ program Snapshots and are partners in Forté Entertainment Inc.

Though the two now work on every project together, their relationship started while they were employed on separate shows.

“The men’s washroom happened to be close to my desk, and one day Mitch stopped to talk to me,” says Andrea. “An innocent, ‘Can you tell me where the washroom is?’ turned into a 30-minute chat. He started coming by a lot to use the washroom giving my colleagues great fodder for many jokes.”

From that point on, the relationship moved at high speed. Their first date was at Lolita’s Lust, on the Danforth, and three weeks later they took their first trip to Costa Rica — now an annual tradition.

It was on one of those annual trips to the Central American country that Mitch proposed.

“We had dinner delivered to our room, and he was getting up and down from the table, changing the music. He was really starting to bug me,” says Andrea. “Finally, as I turned to say, ‘What’s going on?’ he went down on one knee and proposed. Then we both burst into tears.”

The wedding was a joint elopement and honeymoon that also took place in Costa Rica, naturally.

Eight years later they share a home in Bloor West Village with their twin son and daughter — Cooper and Zoe.

As personal and professional partners, the pair say they are a better couple when working together than apart.

“We are both so passionate and dedicated to our work that it became almost a jealousy issue when we were turning that level of commitment to projects for other people,” says Andrea.

Article exclusive to STREETS OF TORONTO