A Texas woman found a creative way to finalize the end of her 14-year marriage with more than just a signature. Kimberly Santleben-Stiteler, 43, celebrated her divorce with a party that culminated in a massive explosion of her wedding dress that was felt for miles, 15 miles away in fact.
Santleben-Stiteler originally planned to just burn the dress, which she told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram “represented a lie,” but her family thought of a bigger way to get rid of the symbol of her marriage.
Rather than simply throwing the dress into a fire, Kimberly’s dad and brother-in-law came up with the idea of burning the dress with exploding targets. The dress was rigged with 20 pounds of Tannerite, an explosive component used for firearms training.
A video posted to Facebook by her sister, Carla Santleben-Newport, shows the Texas teacher shooting at her wedding dress, which had been rigged with 20 pounds of an explosive called tannerite, at her father’s farm in LaCoste, Texas. With around 40 people looking on, Santleben-Stiteler hits it on her first try, sending the dress up in flames.
Posted by Carla Santleben-Newport on Saturday, 10 November 2018
At the end of the day, Santleben-Newport said the so-called “divorce party” was more about family than her sister’s ex.
“It wasn’t done for him or about him,” she said. “It was just our family having a fun-filled celebration.”