Steve Garbarino Gets Hitched at L.A.'s Chateau Marmont

It's been a long while since I've felt hip enough to hang with my old pal Steve Garbarino, editor of glossy New York fashion mag BlackBook, and a close friend back when we worked together at the Tampa Tribune, and for several years after that.

And now this: The former Tampa scenester, one-time editor of the old Creative Loafing, variously employed in editorial positions at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, New Orleans Magazine, Billboard, US and the New York Post, and for a while the unnoficial King of the Hub, gets the biggest photo in today's Weddings/Celebrations section of the New York Times.

That's the place where NYC's notables - the trendiest, wealthiest, most talented, most well-connected -- show up to announce their weddings.

Steve, a gifted writer whose work has appeared in Vanity Fair and Interview, among other publications, married Maddy Simpson, 31, a "freelance fashion stylist" and former model on Sept. 8 at, of all places, the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. The West Hollywood hotel is notorious for, among other things, being the place where John Belushi died of a drug overdose in 1982.

According to NYT writer Francesca Segre: "The couple's 80 guests gathered on the sixth-floor penthouse deck overlooking the Los Angeles skyline, for a party described as "Gatsbyesque" by the bride, who wore a glod lame Ralph Lauren dress with Art Deco styling. Mr. Garbarino wore a white Prada tuxedo with white Converse sneakers."

(What? I wasn't invited? Just kidding)

To read the full account of the nuptials, go here.

Way back when, we hung out, and drank too much, at bars in Ybor City, downtown Tampa and Hyde Park. If memory serves me right, we experienced a few close encounters with Jagermeister and the jukebox ("Worried Man Blues," anyone?) at the old Chatterbox.

Later, I crashed at Garbarino's places on several trips to NOLA and NYC. Then, for me, came love, marriage, the baby carriage, etc. (not that there's anything wrong with that!) We gradually lost touch with one another, and I've enjoyed watching, from afar, as Steve's star has risen.

Congrats, Steve and Maddy!