UPDATE - I think tonight's the night my (28F) boyfriend (33M) is going to propose. I don't want to marry him.

I've been with my boyfriend for 2.5 years and things are good between us. We live together and have good communication, he's kind, he's respectful, he looks after me when I'm sick. One of our few downsides is that we don't have much in common, but we've been working on that.<br><br>On Tuesday night he told me that on Saturday he will be taking me to dinner at a nice restaurant in a coastal town 2 hours drive from our town. In the coastal town there is a seafood restaurant with a deck overlooking the ocean that my mother told him is one of my top bucket list dining experiences. He hasn't explicitly told me how long we'll be in the coastal town for, but the booking is for dinner and he's mentioned that his brother will be picking up the dog on Saturday so we don't have to worry about getting home. I would be surprised if he doesn't have a booking for us to stay one night at least.<br><br>He's been dropping hints about our future together and has mentioned that he'd like to get married in the next 3-5 years. One day last week he was looking at rings online and showed me some that he liked and asked me what I thought. On Tuesday when he told me about the dinner he also told me he'd like me to get my nails done before we go.<br><br>I honestly don't feel ready to marry him. I love and appreciate him but I feel like I'm just getting to know him. We are still growing to understand each other's sense of humour, which is something I feel like I should already know after 2.5 years with someone. I also don't feel happy with where he is in his life. He's not as motivated or driven as I am, and I feel like he relies on me to get him going, which is frustrating for me. I worry that marrying him before he gets his life together is going to prevent him from ever doing it. I would rather we stayed together for another 5 years and see where he's at then than get married now and risk delaying his development.<br><br>I haven't mentioned any of this to him yet because I wanted to make sure I wasn't jumping to conclusions. But now that he's gone to the trouble of making a reservation at a nice restaurant and looking at engagement rings I feel like I really do need to say something.<br><br>My options are:<br><br>A) Go to dinner, accept his proposal, and then tell him I don't think I'm ready yet in the hopes that he will be relieved and thinks it's funny I accepted without making my expectations clear.<br><br>B) Go to dinner, decline his proposal, and then try to work through all this with him in the moment.<br><br>C) On Tuesday tell him, before he goes to any more trouble, that I appreciate the effort he's putting into taking me out for a nice dinner but I need him to understand that I'm not ready to get married yet.<br><br>D) On Tuesday tell him that I do want to go out for a nice dinner but I'm not comfortable going to such a special, bucket-list restaurant because it feels too much like a proposal and I'm not ready to get married yet.<br><br>E) On Tuesday tell him that I do want to marry him one day, but not for the next 5+ years. If he still wants to go out to a nice dinner I'm happy to, but if he would prefer to just stay home this Saturday that's fine too.<br><br>F) On Tuesday tell him that I do want to marry him one day, but not until I see a bit more motivation and drive from him. If he still wants to go out to a nice dinner I'm happy to, but if he would prefer to just stay home this Saturday that's fine too.<br><br>G) On Tuesday decline his invitation to dinner because I don't want to be there when he finds out I'm not ready to marry him / don't want to marry him.<br><br>H) Other (please suggest)<br><br>EDIT: I'm going to try to respond to some comments as I eat my breakfast, but I might have to take a break after that. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and I'm still trying to work out what I'm going to do. <br><br>On the topic of some people saying that he sounds like he has depression, he's mentioned it in passing but never to me. I see a lot of potential in him but I feel like he needs to be pushed sometimes to get there. I'm currently trying to work with him on getting more exercise but he's very stubborn about it.