Mr James and I are massive film fans and we had the idea to incorporate this side of our lives into our wedding day. I wanted my niece, Amy, who was a bridesmaid to carry a 1950s usherette tray, reminiscent of the girls who worked in cinemas and theatres selling cigarettes and sweets, only mine would hold the confetti boxes. But could I find one!? I came across lots of modern versions which would not have looked very nice and eventually I gave up and decided to make my own.
Luckily I’m quite arts and crafty but I’m not good at making things completely from scratch, so I went all Blue Peter one afternoon and set about my task…

As a starting point I bought an ordinary dinner/ lap tray from Ikea, making sure it had raised sides and a handle at either end. It came varnished so I sanded all the sides down so that the paint I was going to use would have something to grip onto.
I used Dulux Once Matt which was actually left over from decorating our bedroom!  Once it was dry I fitted some beautiful fabric I had found on eBay to the flat bottom of the tray by folding the edges over and using a staple gun to secure it in place.

I had scoured haberdashers for ribbon, and found very wide white ribbon to affix to the handles, this would pass around Amy’s shoulders and act as the securing strap for the usherette tray. I simply tied each side into a bow with a little extra fabric hanging loosely down for a pretty effect, et voila! It only took me an afternoon to make!

The finishing touch were the confetti boxes which were actually popcorn boxes that I also found on eBay. I filled them with beautiful natural confetti from Shropshire Petals, I chose Harvest Moon and Icing Sugar (2 litres of each).

TIP! They have a special offers section on their website where you can save if you buy in larger quantities.