Gori Girl

I'll just say that even if you don't get it "right," it will be okay.  And of course your fiancee is a much better source than I am.  That said, I called my now husband's parents Mr. and Mrs. X until right after our wedding, when I sort of switched to mommy-ji and daddy-ji, which I thought was cute.  I'm still getting used to saying it, but I did at least drop the Mr. and Mrs.  I think they thought it was a little formal that I called them Mr. and Mrs., but it was okay.  Probably better with my husband's dad than with his mom, maybe because he'd worked with a British company and was more used to that kind of formality.  

I think I shook hands when I met the parents.  Although we weren't engaged when I met them.  It was more of a "the-parents-need-to-come-to-the-US-and-meet-me-and-approve-first" situation, so I wasn't so secure that I was willing to risk a hug.  If you're comfortable with the namaste it might work, but if you're not, then I'd think hand-shaking is okay.   

My FIL died before I could meet him, so my experience has just been with my MIL.  I took my cues from my husband, who told me to call my MIL Mummy (which I still call her).  Also, the first time I saw her I touched her feet along with my husband.  That's basically what I still do when we greet each other for the first time and when we are leaving until the next visit…touch feet, then hug! 

I suggest taking your cues from your partner, and find out what the parents might expect.

It's so interesting how this varies from family to family. For my fiance's family, if I don't attempt to touch their feet, THAT would be considered disrespectful. With his family, it's just as DJain mentioned…you touch the feet when you first see them and then when you leave. I'm worried about forgetting all of this, but as he told me, I'll just follow what he does! Then we have 15-20 family members coming to stay at the house for the days prior to our wedding, so that's 15-20 more I have to remember….oh boy! :)

DJain, that's too funny! I'm sure it's going to be the same for our wedding. I'm getting so excited now! We leave in 2 weeks, 2 days! Yay!

Good luck, P_D! Can't wait to hear how it goes.

For the record, my ILs are like GG's — they would think it was odd if I touched their feet in greeting. I do it during pujas or other ceremonial occasions, but that's about it. Also, I call them Amma and Pappa, like G does. My MIL pulled me aside after G and I got engaged to tell me it was ok to call them that, because she didn't want me to feel awkward about not knowing what to call them. I was so relieved and thankful that she thought to have that conversation with me!

Hello.  :)  They liked me.  Everything went surprisingly well!   Everything was effortless and I fit right in! :)  I was just myself.  I spent a week traveling with them through two different cities which included a day of dragging them around Disneyland with my 4.5 year old future nephew! :)

Though I am kind of ashamed to say I didn't call them any name. :(  They didn't seem to mind though.  I'll have to figure this out soon though. haha.

When I first met them I just shook their hands.  Though my future MIL started hugging me to say good bye/ good night the first day.  I continued to shake the future FILs hand every day. When we parted ways for the last time yesterday he gave me a little half hug (kind of like when two grown men hug in public ;) )

Also over the weekend they also met MY parents. That was also very successful.  Everyone got along great and there were not cultural faux pas!

Thanks again for all of the suggestions.