Richardson forced to remove pictures of Kate Moss' wedding from website

What do you expect if you invite the fashion world's most notorious photographer to the rock n' roll wedding of the century?

Terry Richardson has removed a set of superior paparazzi pictures taken at Kate Moss' wedding from his blog, after their publication clashed with a Vogue deal for Mario Testino to produce exclusive photographs from the event.

Richardson, a controversial New York fashion photographer, whose images often blur the boundary between art and porn, was invited as a guest to the Gloucestershire wedding of the model and Jamie Hince, guitarist with The Kills.

But faced with a guest list featuring the cream of fashion and rock royalty, his professional instincts took over.

Richardson reeled off a series of beautifully-composed black and white shots of Sir Paul McCartney, Jack White, model Karen Elson, Daphne Guinness, designers Marc Jacobs and Manolo Blahnik and other A-listers enjoying themselves at the reception. The pictures include Kelly Osbourne kissing Hince's "best man" Alison Mosshart full on the lips.Throwing in some intimate shots of Moss and Hince embracing and drinking, Richardson published the images on his blog, Terry's Diary.

Fashion websites immediately linked to the first images released from inside the closely-guarded £500,000 event last weekend. The stylish pictures, which flatter many of their subjects, would be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to celebrity magazines.But their publication appears to have spoilt the happy couple's Mediterranean honeymoon on Sir Philip Green's luxury yacht. Mrs Moss is believed to have sold exclusive rights to the wedding pictures to the US edition of Vogue magazine, for its September issue.

Mario Testino, favourite photographer of Diana, Princess of Wales, who provided the 40s-style Moss cover shot for the August Vogue edition, was the official wedding photographer.

Richardson, a close friend of the couple, has removed the "spoiler" images from his Tumblr blog. He has retained the shots he took from the "after-show" - a series of posed images of Moss and Hince rolling around their Ritz bedroom taken after the wedding.

The rights to celebrity wedding pictures have prompted furious legal rows. OK! fought a £10 million court battle with Hello! magazine over the exclusive rights to pictures of the 2000 wedding between Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The heavily tattooed Richardson, 45, is notorious for his sexually graphic shoots and his motto: "It's not who you know, it's who you blow." His work has appeared in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar but his GQ images of the Glee cast sucking lollipops and displaying their underwear angered parents' organisations.

Richardson has brushed off accusations that he exploits young models. Rie Rasmussen, a Danish model, said: "He takes girls who are young, manipulates them to take their clothes off and takes pictures of them they will be ashamed of." He remains in demand among the leading fashion houses and has taken a portrait of President Obama.