Help with Recent Wedding...

[AprilRamone]

I'm hoping some of your seasoned wedding pros can offer me some advice!

I had a wedding in April that took place at a ranch. I know that reception halls are notorious for having really bad lighting but this one was the worst for me yet. The ceiling was way to high for me to bounce my flash and I've recently decided that the stroboframe is too cumbersome.
I've been seriously thinking about investing in yet another flash (already have the 580ex and 580II ex) and some pocket wizards. Do you think my results with shooting at this reception would have been better if I had set up another speedlight to go off when the speedlight on my camera went off? Do you think I need to go back to using the stroboframe?
I also have an alienbee 800 with an umbrella (have a huge soft box too, but it's hard to travel with). Can the bee be hooked up to pocket wizards?

Maybe when I'm shooting in really low light I just need to get in closer?
I'd love to hear opinions on how I could have improved the reception shots!
Oh, my settings were 1600 iso, 1/60 or 1/80 shutter speed, I also used my 50 1.4 at 1.4 a ton and my 70-200 2.8 a lot at 2.8

Ok, so there is ugly side shadows because I didn't want to use my stroboframe (although a lot of the time I still see a heavy shadow using the stroboframe, it's just in a different spot)

What's the best program for reducing noise? I sometimes have good results with neatimage but not always.

Another technical question...if I had used a lens hood would there still be the rainbow from shooting too much toward the sun? Or would it help reduce that problem?

And then a couple I actually liked....

 

[JimmyO]

The last three are good. The first 2 are lacking. I feel like this is becuase of the on camera flash, not great composition, and lack of effective PP. Just my take...

 

[ScottS]

In the last wedding I helped shoot, the reception was in a room where every surface was a dark wood. We could not bounce our flashes off anything!

So, we rented 2 more SB-800's (we both had one) and hooked them up to the big battery packs. Then we used our on camera SB-800's to be the main light in the scene, and then we set up the other two 800's on light stands shooting through umbrellas.

Sorry if i rambled, its late.

 

[AprilRamone]

Scott, I totally forgot about shooting the flash through an umbrella. That's not a bad idea...

As far as the flash in these pictures go, I was shooting straight on with no diffuser at all because it was already so dark in there I didn't want to lose any of the flash power.

 

[JimmyJaceyMom]

I'm surely no wedding pro! But can you use a bouncecard in situations like this? Just an idea but I really don't know. Love the one with the hands and the horse and carriage!