Yes, it was certainly nice of her to do that. I don't think she planned this, but since she found out about the hat store and knew I wanted a wider brimmed fedora, she decided to take a look. She actually narrowed it down to two hats, and I had to help pick which one I'd get. At ~$150 each, she wasn't about to buy both of them and I can't blame her. I went with this because the brim was a bit wider, the band was a bit thinner, the crease was more teardrop shaped (like I'm used to), and the clerk said the charcoal gray color (the other hat was black) was more versatile and would go with shades of black, gray, and navy, which is my overcoat, trench coat, and all of my suits, so it should go fairly well with just about anything I wear.
Thanks for the comment! I know that the fur felt (I think my wife said it's rabbit) should be a good material and should wear well as long as I take care of it. My wife bought a brush to go with the hat, and the store is including some basic care directions for me. If people here have some care tips though, please pass them along. They're also tossing in a few feathers, so that I can vary up the hat a little bit with them. As long as my wife likes how those look, I intend to use them. This will be my first wider brimmed fedora though, so I'm not sure exactly how it will look on me. But the clerk saw pictures of me wearing my ~1.5" brim fedoras and said I could use a wider brim, so I'm hopeful that it will suit me a bit better than the smaller brimmed hats I currently have.
BTW, my wife decided to have it shipped to me now, rather than try to deal with taking it on the plane when her trip's over, so I should have it within a week. She said it's my (early) Valentine's Day present.
