Amusing footage has emerged of a bride using a trebuchet to fire her bouquet into a crowd of women at her wedding.

The clip, filmed in El Dorado County, in California, shows the bride pulling a string on the catapult-like device to set it off.

It sends her bouquet flying into the air before it is caught by a delighted female guest.

The bride pulls a string to set off the trebuchet, which launches her bouquet into the air

The device, based on a medieval siege weapon, was built by the bride's two brothers, who are interested in engineering.

One of them said: 'My sister asked me and my brother to build a catapult to launch the bouquet at her wedding.

'After a little brainstorming, this is what we came up with.

'It will launch a bouquet 40ft, a bean bag 100ft, and a baseball 220ft.'

The trebuchet was invented in China in around 300BC - it did not reach Europe until around 800 years later.

Its name comes from the Old French word 'trebucher' - which means to 'throw over'.

It went on to become a vital siege weapon throughout the Middle Ages and would be used to hurl rocks to smash down city walls and castles.

The bouquet goes out of the camera frame as excited guests try to catch it