Out with a bang! Woman celebrates divorce by blowing up wedding dress

Over it! The 43-year-old had just finalised her divorce and felt like the dress represented 'a lie' - so she wanted it to burn. Photo / Facebook

With 'divorce parties' all the rage these days, one Texas woman took celebrating the end of her marriage a step further by literally blowing up the gown she wore to walk down the isle.

Kimberly Santleben-Stiteler of LaCoste, Texas recently finalised her divorce after 14 years of marriage — and she clearly wasn't holding on to any warm, fuzzy feelings about her ex.

On Saturday, the 43-year-old hosted a bash for family and friends to help her celebrate the occasion, with the festivities culminating in an explosion in which she blew her white dress apart.

Kimberly wanted to wash her hands of the marriage once and for all once the divorce was finalised on Friday, the MailOnline reported.

"I wanted to remove all things from our marriage from our house," she told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Photos in the attic, ring in the safe (but probably going to sell it) and the dress I wanted to burn."

Over it! The 43-year-old had just finalised her divorce and felt like the dress represented 'a lie' - so she wanted it to burn. Photo / Facebook

It was her dad and brother who suggested upping the ante and adding explosives into the equation.

So over the weekend, she invited about 40 friends and family member's to her family's farm, which is about 30 minutes west of San Antonio.

There, they'd rigged up her dress with 9kg of Tannerite, and explosive material, and Kimberly walked 180m away with a rifle in her hands.

She shot at it, setting off the explosives and causing a large 'boom' and fireball to erupt — which was so violent that neighbours heard it from miles away.

That's a big boom! Neighbours heard it from 15 miles away. Photo / Facebook

"We were all getting messages asking if that was our explosion people were feeling and hearing around the county, up to at least 24km away," Kimberly's sister, Carla Santleben-Newport, told the Star-Telegram.

"It was like, 'Uh, is everything okay over there?'"

Kimberly said that when she first decided to get rid of the dress, friends and family suggested donating it for premature babies and baptism gowns, but she wanted something a bit more symbolic.

"To me, the dress represented a lie. I wanted to have a divorce party to burn the dress," she said.

A friend who works as a bomb tech offered safety advice, suggesting they stand far back considering how much explosive material they were working with.

All in all, Kimberly — and her cheering guests — were happy with the results.

"On the one hand, it was like being on set of some action movie. The explosion was huge," Kimberly said. "It was liberating pulling that trigger. It was closure for all of us."