Flanders native is ‘Married at First Sight’ on Lifetime reality show airing Jan. 1

Imagine marrying a total stranger?

Sure, almost anyone who’s been married any length of time can look back on their courtship and early marriage and say that, in retrospect, they didn’t know each other very well at the outset.

But they did  know each other. Certainly, they’d already met prior to the walk down the aisle.

Not so for the cast of the Lifetime TV reality show “Married at First Sight” — and in the season premiere airing Jan. 1, a Flanders native is one of eight singles who ties the knot with a total stranger. (See preview.)

AJ Vollmoeller, 37, a 1999 graduate of Riverhead High School, said “I do” with Stephanie Sersen, 35, on the day they met — at the altar — in a wedding orchestrated by Lifetime’s “social experiment” reality show. When they exchanged vows in a legally binding ceremony they didn’t know anything about each other — not the other’s age or occupation or last name. 

Vollmoeller owns and operates a staffing and recruiting agency in Philadelphia, where he’s lived for five years. He said he wanted to get married but was focused on his career and very busy running his business. He’d grown disenchanted with the more traditional ways of finding a life mate.

“You can date for six months only to find out the other person’s not ready for a commitment,” he said.

“I don’t like online dating. There’s not enough substance to it. I want a better story to tell the grandkids than we met through a computer algorithm.”

Vollmoeller had been single for almost six years when he heard about “Married at First Sight” coming to Philadelphia. It occurred to him that what the show’s panel of experts does is similar to what he does in his career.

“I do recruiting all day, every day,” Vollmoeller said. “I’m sifting through candidates, picking the best ones. In my elevator pitch, I say I’m the match.com for recruiting.”

“Married at First Sight” would be an opportunity to have “highly accredited experts doing the legwork for me,” he said.

After looking into it, he said, he decided “I’d be stupid not to go for it. I’d have a panel of experts waiting to help me out with this — experts at the highest level. I was very specific in what I wanted [in a wife].” She would be adventurous and would make him laugh as well as laugh with and at him. “I’m kinda dorky,” he said.

“I truly believed in the process from the very beginning. I had complete faith they would find somebody perfect for me,” he said.

Sersen, an analyst with Deloitte Consulting, signed up for the show in the hopes of finding her soulmate — a man who would treat her the way her father treats her mother.

An only child, Vollmoeller’s parents have been married for 45 years. His parents were somewhat leery when he told them he was signing up for the show, he admitted. But they supported him.

The vetting process was exhaustive, Vollmoeller said. The panel asked probing questions, both in person and in the written questionnaires he had to complete.

“They really make you get in touch with yourself,” he said. “I learned a lot about myself. In digging through past relationships, you see patterns — some which may have had a negative effect.” The process helped him grow and understand himself a lot better, he said.

Vollmoeller said he knew he was taking a risk but felt it would be worth it.

Couples matched by the panel of experts — Pastor Calvin Roberson, Dr. Pepper Schwartz and Dr. Jessica Griffin — legally marry two weeks after being accepted by the show. The wedding and the ensuing honeymoon are paid for by the network. They live out at least some of portion of the next couple months on camera. After eight weeks, they must decide if they’re going to remain married or divorce. (The network also pays for the divorce, if that’s their choice.)

Vollmoeller wasn’t free to disclose the date of the wedding — it was “a few months ago” — or how things worked out for him and Sersen. To find out, you’ll have to tune in to “Married At First Sight” on Lifetime. The two-hour season premiere will air Tuesday at 9 p.m.