'Love At First Flight': Former Okemos resident cast in new reality show

OKEMOS - A former Michigan State student's journey across the country with a stranger who could be her perfect match will be chronicled on camera in a new reality show premiering on Lifetime Tuesday.

Stephanie Johnson, 31, is one of eight singles cast and paired up in the new show "Love at First Flight."

The show matches couples and and sends them on a trip across North America together, starting in New York and ending in Los Angeles. When they arrive in L.A. at the end of the season they’ll be given the chance to get married at the airport.

Johnson, a former Okemos resident who now lives in Dallas, said she thought the premise was ridiculous initially.

She founded a company called Singles & The City. The member-based group of single and dating professionals gather for self-awareness and networking events.

The focus, Johnson said, is on helping members to be their best self now, while they’re single.

“I partner with local therapists and counselors, make it a really fun environment for you to get your mind together,” she said during a interview with the State Journal this month while she was in Okemos visiting her parents and younger sister, who still live there.

Learning to be your best self before marriage “starts from within," Johnson said. "Once people flipped the way they were thinking about being single they’re able to enjoy their single journey and/or meet someone who’s extra awesome.”

There are Singles & The City chapters in five cities — Dallas, Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Detroit — with 2,000 members. Three couples who met through the business have since gotten married. 

So why would a successful entrepreneur, who makes a career out of helping singles live their best life, go on a reality television show aimed at helping her find her soul mate?

“I didn’t want to get married for a long time,” Johnson said. “The company was doing well. So was I.”

Then she turned 30, and started thinking about marriage and family. When she saw the casting call for “Love At First Flight” she applied on a whim.

“I was just like, ‘Why not? There’s no chance they’re going to match me with somebody, but I will get a free trip.’ That was my true thought.”

Johnson's sister Lauryn Marshall, a student at Lansing Community College, said family members couldn't have predicted the reality show experience for Johnson but they supported it.

"Stephanie has a personality that people gravitate toward," Marshall said. "She can always make the best of life." 

The casting process took more than a year. In total four couples were matched and cast to star in the Lifetime show. First though, Johnson had to meet with a professional match maker in Los Angeles for an interview.

“They went through your perfect match in the entire world,” Johnson said. “This was your ultimate person.”

Johnson was matched with Michael Stewart, 31, another entrepreneur from Atlanta, Georgia, who she said she was “pleasantly surprised” with.

“It was a great match,” Johnson said.

The show was filmed last October for a month and a half. Johnson and Stewart stayed in separate rooms at each hotel along the way, but spent nearly every waking hour together, in airports, restaurants and during activities or “dates” the show’s producers led them through.

Johnson can’t talk about those until after the show airs, but called them “random.” Photos of the couple during filming show Johnson and Stewart riding horses and making pottery. 

“They pretty much take your worst fears and make you do them together,” she said. “Never have I been thrown into such a compact situation with someone in such an intimate space. There’s no comparison.”

Those situations stripped their on-camera dates of any pretenses, Johnson said.

“The rawness is what I loved about it,” she said.

As for whether her opinion of a potential marriage with Stewart at the close of filming changed along the way, viewers will have to wait and see.

“Going in, I never thought my ending would be my ending,” she said. “I’m glad I jumped into this.”

“Love At First Flight” premiers Tuesday, March 20 at 10 p.m. on Lifetime.