My FMIL is a nice enough lady. We are not close and she lives about 2 hours away, so we don't get together terribly often and there is little wedding discussion. Two weeks ago, we met up with FI's family for an event FI was involved in. She informed me at that time that she needed a picture of the tux that FI decided on, because she wanted to find a similar one in her town for FFIL and FBIL to wear (they are both in the wedding). I must have looked confused, because she explained that it's too much trouble to drive in to pick up the tuxes on Friday, drive in again for the wedding on Saturday, and then drive in again to return them on Sunday.
My first response was "Oh, you're not going to stay in town? FI and I were planning on paying for your hotel room." Nope she doesn't want to stay in town. And she's just sure she can find something 'similar' in her town, even though we chose a local tux shop that has no locations near her. I bean dipped her at that point and discussed it privately with FI later. I told him that I don't like the idea, and that if 8 out of 10 men in the wedding party are wearing the same thing, the two that are not will be rather obvious. I also pointed out that they will be driving in Friday for the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner anyway. So, if returning the tuxes is a concern, FFIL and FBIL could just bring a change of clothes and leave the tuxes with us to return. I then placed this squarely in FI's lap and told him he needs to talk with her about it. I'm concerned though, because he is super non-confrontational and his mom can be a bit of a bulldozer. In fact, she brought it up again when we saw her at Mother's Day. FI said nothing at the time, I think because this was in front of his extended family and shutting her down publicly would have been inappropriate. So she was bean dipped again. But I fear I'm gonna have to follow up with him about this one. And since this is usually the follow-up question; no his parents are not paying for anything. They have mentioned giving us a specific amount for the rehearsal dinner, and also a small lump sum, but they have not actually given any money toward the wedding at this point.

