Are you keeping the dress a secret?

Janna2012

So I'm not showing my future husband until the day of. And in fact we are doing photos before the ceremony to get the first look pictures. 

However, since I've bought my dress a lot of people (who are invited to the wedding) have been asking to see the dress. I'm not sure how to react to this since in my family for previous weddings it's always been kept a secret until the wedding day. The most recent person to ask is the father of the groom.

Is this a cultural thing? is this a family thing? (meaning is my canadian family crazy) What are you all planning on doing? Should I tell people that they can't see the wedding dress until the wedding? 

PumpkinFloralsandCrafts

I just googled "keeping wedding dress a secret" because I messed up and put a bride's wedding gown (just the stock photo from designer) on her floral inspiration board on my facebook page (I'm a florist).  She emailed me an hour later and told me to take it down because she is keeping it a secret (although I don't think anyone that knows her "likes" my facebook page, or would assume that was her actual dress, since the board is a lot of images thrown together, but I still understand).  I totally forgot that people keep it a secret.  But I have heard of people doing it, it's not odd.
When I got married, I showed my now-husband the designer stock photo of the gown...and he saw it in the garment bag before the big day.  Being a boy, he couldn't visulize the way it would look on me on me, with my hair and makeup and accessories on, and he was still surprised when he saw how I looked the day of. 
My husband has admitted to me that most gowns in a given time period look similar to men, based on trends...there are only really a few basic variations of gowns that you see a lot these days (with different details of course).  When they first see you...they are seeing YOU, all of you, not the dress.
I do understand wanting to keep it a secret though.  These days so much of what people are doing with their weddings is out in public for people to see before the big day, with facebook, wedding websites, etc., it's nice to have some details still kept as a surprise.