For the first time on a blog....Mr & Mrs Justin Amaral

So it's nearly 7 months since our engagement...and here we are Mr & Mrs.
I didn't think that we would be "typical" newly weds since we've been living together for so long, but I do have to say we really are enjoying married life (ask me again in 20 years ha!ha!) Now we move on from the wedding plans to the house plans. We have just started looking for a home, the apartment just can't hold all the wedding presents (thank you all for being so generous).
Anyway here is a picture of us at the wedding, I'm hoping that the family will start emailing any digital pics they took (hint...hint..)

Wow! We did it! Shotgun wedding minus the baby :)

Wild on Lizzie

Saturday night was my bachelorette party and it was a blast!!
There were some embarrasing moments that I might have changed, but all in all it was a great time. Thank you to the bridesmaids, my family and my friends who could all be there to celebrate. Here's a PG rated photo from my night out. I look a little scared in this picture, I wonder what the girls were doing to me at the time.

Shotgun Wedding?!?!?

No No ladies & gentlemen this is not a shotgun wedding...more like 2 crazy people booking it all in 3 months (sound familiar Joe & Vicki or Buddy & Julie?) Anyway, things have gone well so far. The shower was today & it was a blast..thank you girls for no games.

It has been a difficult week & it was hard not having Aunt Pat there, but we all know she was there in spirit. As I am receiving all the response cards I can't help but look at each one and think about her putting the stamps on. I can remember the day when I told her that Justin was Portugese and her only response was "I'm sure he's a lovely man". I really don't know how Justin did it but he proved to her at he was just as good as an Irishman. I know it helped when he called her every year on St. Patrick's Day!!

Now here we are 35 days out and only minor details to go. I'm very relaxed and not overwhelmed....please remind me of this feeling in 2 weeks, although I'm sure the champagne and glass of wine helped :).

Happy Birthday William!!!

Princess Di?

So we got through the holidays. It was a lot of smiles and questions along with me flashing my hand around for all to see that it's true. As we stood at the Barrett Christmas party I listened to all the women chatting about how beautiful the wedding will be and whispers of what the dress will look like. My aunt Annie shouted that I will top Princess Di's wedding...how am I going to pull that off?!?

It's funny how we have been together for the last 4 Christmas' and yet this one still felt a little different. There is no more you go your way and I'll go mine, everything was together (except the shopping). I did feel more like the wife since I did all the shopping and wrapping, but if this is what married life is like then BRING IT ON!!
Here's a pic of Justin & I in San Antonio, we were going to send this out as a Christmas Card but we just never got around to it.

So...Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from Justin & Liz!!!

24 Days!

It's been 24 wonderful days of engagement la la land....Still we have no plans.
Thursday we sat down with a glass of wine, a piece of paper and a pen to start our guest list. We got through a few glasses of wine before anything was written down. Slowly we started to rattle off some names and 20 minutes later there were 190 names. This was all off the top of our heads without family input. Needless to say I have not looked at it since then. Can't we just skip all the details and get to the fun part?!?
Here's a picture from the most recent wedding Justin was in. He's showing off his muscles in the traditional "Hora" dance. I had a hard time trying to explain to him why I don't think it's possible to include this at our wedding, obviously he had a great time.

We're Engaged!!!

That's right ladies & gentleman just before the common law marriage became official he proposed!!
ha! It hasn't been quite that long, but you would think so with all the people asking what we were waiting for.
Anyway....we took our very first vacation together to San Antonio, Texas and right there at the romantic riverwalk, he asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. So of course I was excited and smiling but I forgot to answer. Eventually I spit out an answer and that was "of course!!"
So here's a picture of Justin right before he proposed (please note the hand holding the ring and the nauseating look on his face).

WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!