Julian was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland and grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia. After graduating from the University of British Columbia with a BS in Computer Science, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to work at Pixar in 1999. He’s been working as a rendering software engineer ever since. In addition to being a complete geek, Julian is also an accomplished musician, playing both the piano and cello in chamber music groups and orchestra whenever he gets the chance. This doesn’t stop him from listening to a lot of heavy metal music though.

Susan was born in Southfield, Michigan, but ventured south to North Carolina and Georgia early in her life, so she considers herself a true Southern belle. She spent the majority of her childhood in Alpharetta, GA. A geek from the start, she attended the Georgia Institute of Technology where she earned a BS in Computer Science. After a Masters degree at the University of North Carolina, she started working at Pixar in 2001 as a software engineer, technical director, and lately a rendering supervisor on Wall-E.

They first met at Pixar in Emeryville in 2001, but barely interacted, even though Susan’s cubicle was outside Julian’s office. Susan remembers once borrowing a cable from Julian, but otherwise their interaction was light. It was only after Julian moved to the Seattle Pixar office that they started working together and getting to know each other, mainly via instant messenging. Their first "date" was on May 3, 2003 at the Finding Nemo wrap party. Technically they were just going as friends... and thus began the awkward phase of their relationship! Dating a coworker? Never!

Thankfully the awkward phase was short-lived. Their first real date was on July 3, 2003 when Julian was in San Francisco for a friend’s wedding. They continued to see each other long distance until Julian relocated back to the Bay Area in January 2006.

Julian decided to propose on the fifth anniversary of their first date. Since they hadn’t celebrated that particular day before he thought it would be a good surprise. Unfortunately plans hit a snag the day before: when he casually floated the idea of going out for dinner as Susan wasn’t keen on it.

Fortunately, after presenting Susan with an anniversary card the next morning she was more amenable to dinner plans.

For more in-depth, here is Julian’s account of the engagement story, and here is Susan’s version.