This is my story: I am 43 years old and my fiancé is 45. We both have been married in the past and divorced. I have three children, the oldest being 24, and the youngest being 17. He does not have children. We met about five years ago but we were never able to become serious due to an hour drive distance between us. So he dated, and I dated but always going back to each other. About a year and a half ago we decided to give it a try and make it work. We fell completely in love and about a month ago he proposed. (The proposal came as a complete surprise as we had never discussed marriage). I have been on cloud nine ever since. We are completely in love with each other and have an amazing relationship. I honestly could not ask for more or for a better man or for a better relationship. He loves me so much and I thank God every day for him. When we got engaged a month ago we decided we would have a simple wedding in Sicily, Italy (that’s where he’s from, raised). We started the process of planning the wedding in Sicily and we agreed on September 2022 and it would also be a good month to have an outdoor wedding in Sicily. Both of our families are overjoyed for us and cannot wait for this wedding. His mom who lives in Sicily has agreed to help in anyway she can and is so excited. Today when trying to decide on a date in September (he wants the 10th, I want the 24th) I noticed that I was being a bit pushy on the date that I want and I jokingly said... “are you sure you want to marry me? 🤔😂”. He replied.. “ I do, yes. But it seems like this simple wedding is turning into a mission. And honestly my only rush is because I want to have a kid soon. And if you feel like you don’t want that then I don’t understand what’s the rush”. I told him that wanting to have a baby is not a reason to ask someone to marry them. He said “why else would we need to get married? We can live happily ever after... what does a piece of paper change?” And we went back and forth. We’ve never had a solid conversation about this. Just here and there in passing... but we talk about how nice it is that at our age we can do whatever we want and not have to worry about little babies like a lot of our friends. He always agrees so I just assumed that are our age we would not have any. So now wedding plans are off because “it feels too rushed if we’re not having a baby”. I feel completely broken and a bit humiliated. I feel like my dreams have been shattered. I don’t know what to think. But I do feel like marriage is important although it’s just a piece of paper. But I also don’t want to “convince” him to marry me. I feel alone because I don’t want to tell me family about this in fear that they would think its something else. Am I over reacting? Is he right, what’s the rush? How do I tell everyone wedding is off? Do I still move in with him? So many questions. I also don’t want to show him/tell him that I am hurting about this because then he will go through with the wedding just to make me happy. That’s that’s not the way it should be. I want him to want to.