Bachelorette Advice!

Hey Mary, welcome to WeddingWire! Do you want your relationship with your FMIL to be better? If so, I would definitely invite her. But if you're content with the relationship you have now, it's fine not to invite her, though she might feel a little left out so I would just be prepared for that. If I were in your shoes, I would invite her because I would want us to have a close relationship.

We're working on the relationship. Thanks for the advice!

I agree with the previous comment, if you invite her she will definitely notice that you are making an effort...just like she will notice if all the other moms/grandmothers/family members are talking about the party and she was the only one not invited.

Overall, this is a personal decision, and only you know that if "we don't have a great relationship" means that you just don't know each other well or it means you have a bad/volatile relationship. I'm assuming that this will be a family friendly affair since you mentioned other family members as well, and it could be as simple as talking to your own mom and letting her know your reservations around FMIL, and have your mom be the perfect wingman to bring FMIL into the conversations, or steer conversations to positive, fun topics. Who knows, maybe she just needs a glass of wine to relax, and the two of you will get to do some serious bonding that weekend

I think especially since you're inviting his brother's girlfriend (someone from his side of the family) AND inviting your mother and grandmother (older relatives) it would be really hard for you to NOT invite your FMIL without making the relationship with her worse. Like if you weren't inviting his brother's girlfriend you could justify it by saying you're only inviting people on your side of the family, and if you weren't having your mom and grandmother you could say that you're only inviting girls closer to your age but... yeah I would be really concerned that excluding her from this would make the relationship worse :/ Sorry I feel like that's not the answer you want hahaha, I just don't want you to make things worse for yourself!