I didn't want the hassle of carrying all my clothes, shoes, jewelery, make up, etc. to the church with me. I got dressed at home where I knew where everything was and felt more comfortable and at ease.
No, it isn't bad for your intended to see you in your wedding dress before the ceremony. Mine did and we are still happily married 25 years later.
If you do choose to dress at the church, have someone other then a member of the bridal party take care of your belongings. Maybe this person can stay in the room and watch over all the purses and clothing there. Or lock it all up in the trunk of a car. NancyLouise

I got dressed at church, bcs I didn't want to wrinkle the dress, etc. I gave myself about 45 minutes--my friend who got dressed at the church gave herself about an hour. Too much longer, and I'd have gone nuts w/ anxiety. I ended up cutting it a little bit close, but not too bad. I had less "standing around all dressed up waiting for it to be time" anxiety than my friend did.

We brought a suitcase to stuff our day clothes in. I asked a bridesmaid or someone else to run it out to the car and stick it in the trunk shortly before the ceremony. My friend left her stuff in the room, and her mom scooped it up and put it in the suitcase & car after the ceremony; we could lock that room, and we weren't very worried. (I would never ask someone I loved to stay in the room during the ceremony, and miss the most important part!)

At the end of the day, the groom lugged the suitcase into the house or the hotel.

My intended was adamant about not seeing me in the dress beforehand, which I sort of liked. But other people don't bother--and us insisting on not seeing each other before the ceremony meant my hair was a little mussed at group-portrait time, and we couldn't do portraits in the studio.

heck my dh not only saw me, he spent the night with us, (my folk's apt), and we drove to the chaple together... they lived in vegas and we flew in from san diego...

we're going on 37 years...4 kids and 6 grands...

Don't worry one bit about your fiance's having seen you in your dress. It's just a dress, after all! I think that the only bad luck would be if he criticized it and you had a quarrel. :-) I think Talley Sue's story is very romantic, but I agree that it is so much easier on everyone if you can take your posed pictures BEFORE the ceremony.

I did my hair and makeup and got most of the way dressed at home, but I brought my dress on a hanger in a bag and put it on at the synagogue so it wouldn't wrinkle in the car. If wrinkling weren't an issue, I would think it would be easier to dress at home. If you change at the church, just bring a shopping bag or suitcase for your things and ask someone (like a maid of honor) to remember to bring it home.

Relax! You will laugh later when you look back and see how little the things are that loom so large now. Trust yourself -- you know how to manage, and your wedding day won't be any different. It will all be wonderful.

Congratulations to you!

Oh, also, I wore a tea-length dress (no train, no big skirt), and rode in my best-friend's car to and from everywhere.

If I'd had a big dress, I'd have hated to stuff myself into a normal car; if I couldn't swing a limo, I might want to deal w/the dress at the church (that was my friend's motivation, in part)

Oh, and speaking of romantic--this weekend was our 16th anniv., and I asked DH something about, what did our wedding-march music sound like (we used a trumpet voluntary). He said, "I don't remember anything, I was just looking at you!"

(I think he liked keeping that surprise element in terms of not seeing the dress, head piece, etc.--and it apparently was very effective)