Me and my boyfriend have been together for almost 6 months now, and have been friends for almost a year. The stability of the relationship isn’t a problem, as we are going to leave it a few months before we get engaged.

Basically, we have recently spoken about getting engaged, more the idea of it. He has said he wants to get engaged within the next few months maybe and I do too. The problem is, he doesn’t want to propose. He doesn’t want to say “Will you marry me?” as he has no intention of getting married yet. In all honestly, I don’t really care if he doesn’t want to say “Will you marry me” as I don’t have any intentions of getting married anytime soon either, I feel I am too young only being 18 and as my mum has never been married or liked the idea of marriage, I’m not too big on the idea either. He also doesn’t think getting engaged is a big deal.

From what I know on his side;
He wants to get engaged, doesn’t want to get married, but he has said it’s not as if he never wants to get married, he just doesn’t want to get married anytime soon (which neither do I). He doesn’t think getting engaged is such a big deal and when we do get engaged, he simply wants us to ‘agree’ on it in a way and not propose in any way.

On my side;
I want to get engaged and I have no intentions of getting married anytime soon, if we plan to get married in the next few years then I’m happy with that. But I’m also happy with staying engaged for the rest of our relationship. I personally think getting engaged is quite a big deal as he means so much to me and getting engaged to me proves that we love each other very much and want to stay together. I personally don’t mind if he doesn’t exactly ‘propose’ by asking me will I marry him as we are not getting engaged to get married in the next few months or year or so. But I would like him to make sort of a deal about it, maybe planning something nice whether it’s a nice evening in or out for a meal or something and then proposing in a way without asking me to marry him.

I have tried talking to him about it and I know he loves me as much as he says he does and we are very happy together (we’re also hoping and trying to get a place together soon), so it’s not as if he wants to get engaged just for the sake of it.

How can I talk to him about this? As I said, I don’t mind if he won’t properly propose, but I’d like him to make some sort of deal about it as it’s something that means a lot to me and I want it to be special. I’m quite confused