I got married in the forest. Here are 10 unconventional things we did to make our small wedding extra special.

• My partner and I got married in Mount Hood National Forest with just five of our friends.
• We walked each other down the aisle and really felt like we were entering this marriage together.
• I didn't select the bridesmaid dresses and instead gave my friends a color palette to follow.
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Neither my partner nor I consider ourselves very traditional people, so we knew we wanted our wedding day to reflect that.

I also aimed to keep our ceremony as low-key and low-cost as possible while still achieving a beautiful and special day, so I got married in Mount Hood National Forest with just my closest friends.

Here are 10 of the best unconventional things I did for my wedding:

We walked each other down the aisle

We kept our ceremony very small – five guests and no family – so we knew we wouldn't walk down the aisle with our parents.

We had originally thought each of us would walk down the aisle alone, but moments before the ceremony began, my partner and I decided to do it together.

It ended up being one of my favorite parts of the day and really symbolized that we were entering this marriage together.

Omitting the first look meant we could get ready together

Many couples make a moment of the first look - or the first time they see each other on their wedding day - but we opted out of that tradition.

We booked our photographer for only a few hours to save money, so we wanted to make the most of our time with them.

Plus we wanted to get ready and enjoy the morning together without having to hide from each other.

We had no venue costs since our ceremony was on state-owned land

We wanted to exchange vows in nature, so Mount Hood National Forest was the perfect backdrop, but the fact that it was free truly sealed the deal.

We had our ceremony on a trail on a cool Thursday morning to avoid foot traffic and it worked out perfectly. The few hikers we did see congratulated us, and we were able to easily move aside with our small group.

If you want to do the same, research permit and fee requirements for different locations because they vary by the type of land and state.

We didn't have any altar decor

Since we were on a public trail, we didn't want to bring altar decor of any kind with us.

Although I was worried it would look a little too plain, it turned out so striking. The forest is lush and beautiful on its own, and we really let that shine by not having added decor.

I didn't pay for makeup or hair services

I opted to do my own makeup and hair because I wanted to feel like myself on the big day. I've never been one to wear a lot of makeup and my hair pretty much always looks the same.

I was a little nervous about the photos, so I hired a makeup artist to do a one-hour consultation with me a couple of months prior. This helped me learn new techniques and feel more confident executing my look the day of.

Instead of selecting bridesmaid dresses, I gave my friends a color palette to follow

I knew my friends would be in a lot of photos, so I decided to give them a color palette instead of choosing traditional matching bridesmaid dresses.

I really like how it turned out - their mismatched dresses created an interesting and unique look.

We incorporated film photography and Polaroids into our day

My partner and I are both fans of film photography and brought a couple of our cameras with us for the big day.

Before the ceremony started, I decided to snap a picture of my spouse-to-be standing at the altar. We took turns using the Polaroid for single portraits, and they are so special to me.

We also hired our photography team to shoot Super-8mm video footage and medium-format portraits.

We had a private first dance

We had our ceremony with friends in the morning followed by brunch and cake.

After a bit of eating and conversing, our friends headed out and left me and my partner to have the rest of the day to ourselves.

We decided we wanted to have our first dance alone in the living room of our Airbnb, and it was such a sweet, intimate moment.

Our ceremony didn't include gendered language

The gendered history of marriage has always made me a little uncomfortable, so we opted to have a gender-neutral ceremony.

We got some inspiration from an online source and worked with our officiant to customize our script and make it feel true to us.

We kept our ceremony small and celebrated with friends later

Even though our ceremony was pretty private on a weekday morning, we still wanted to celebrate with more of our friends, so we ended up throwing a small backyard party.

We kept it casual without table settings or a formal start time and could not have had more fun.

It was nice having our wedding day feel really intimate but then still celebrating with our larger friend group - it was the best of both worlds.