when family factors

I saw an article today, which gave me a ray of hope, for my future undertakings. At least, I am not at loggerheads with ALL of society!

"Weddings...pledging our love and loyalty not only to our spouses but also to the in-laws and even favourite restaurants and holiday destinations...Many would say that when we marry our soul mates, we marry their entire family; along with their likes and dislikes, habits and preferences and thoughts and opinions."

And how true this is! I'm not married, but in a relationship with a guy, whose family size is quite like mine, but who is just so close with his extended family, that I feel, THEY are his family. His nucleus family. They are good people, really, boisterous, happy, helpful lot, always looking out for each other. They gather often, especially since a number of them has already made the capital state their home. Perhaps as often as at least once a month, or for any possible occasions, such like the festive season, or perhaps, when one of the cousins are back from overseas, or maybe simply, they have not met for quite a while.
And of course, I am always invited, no questions asked, to any of these family gatherings. I used to go, but not anymore. It has become too much for me. I like the person, had been ready to accept his family before, do my best, but it's not like that anymore. I had begun to feel suffocated of late, too much of a (good) thing, perhaps?

" Choosing a life partner is not as easy as it sounds....some couples try to delay...preferring to instead date for long periods of time....taking on such a huge responsibility can seem terribly daunting and we could be simply better off co-habiting and producing offspring without ever putting pen to paper a la Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie."

She said it quite right. I do not fancy a marriage, nor a commitment, at least not in my frame of mind now. I feel the least that we are suitable for is being committed to each other. I'm afraid that I will be utterly disappointment once the status bar has been raised for my partner, afraid that he will not be able to live up to my expectations, which, unfortunately, I have a long list of.
Even worse, I think, I will fail both him and me, with my forever rebellious thinking. I am the classic 'rebel without a cause' although I do it subtly, sometimes even unconscious of it's beginning, but mostly aware once it gets somewhere in the middle point. With that in mind, marriage is definitely not thing for me right now. I'm happy just the way we are now, living together. Maybe, one day, when I find the most of the items of the list ticked off, perhaps.
But then again, it will be quite a feat, since we already cannot come to agree at the wedding part.

[Ooi, X. (2008), The Star, Marriage binds not only two souls but two families as well, Sights and Sounds, The star Publishing]