<human>: Can you provide a brief overview of the text?

So, my GF and I have been housemates for a few years, and after growing closer for a few months, we began dating in November. Up until now, we haven't mentioned anything to any of our mutual friends, except our third housemate (for obvious reasons.) It has been long enough that we are starting to get more serious, and we don't really know how to bring this up to any of our friends without getting a lot of frustrating questions or unwanted advice. Neither of us want to keep this relationship behind closed doors anymore, and I am sick and tired of not being able to do normal relationship stuff like hold hands when our friends are nearby. 

I understand why they may be in that advice-giving mode. If one of my friends approached me with this situation, I would do the same thing. We both know that entering a romantic relationship with someone you are stuck with for a while is usually a bad idea, but we work together very well. We try to be as open and clear about our feelings as possible with each other, and I for one would like to be more honest with my friends, without her or I being judged (if we can).

Is there a way for us to get the message across, without opening ourselves to unwanted advice/criticism/questions? Or do we just need to out ourselves and take our lumps? 

Should we get this all out at once, or just as it comes up?
<bot>: GF and I with non-standard relationship progression, how do we let our friends know without making it more awkward than it needs to be?