True.

Now get that D@MN flash off your camera!
No swivel is not an issue if take the above advice.

attempt at humor aside, cables, flashbrackets, stands, clamps, umbrellas, snoots whatever, if you get the flash off the camera, your Photos will love you.

you could use your built-in flash as controller and two 360's off camera....incredible flexibility....

if you can afford a 540, then you could probably muster 2 360 fgz's
depending on your camera you can use one or both with wireless p-ttl

feel for ya.
it's tough to choose.
I wanted the 16-50 2.8, but came across a stellar deal on the 16-45.
I too had a line on a sigma, 17-70...
lighting is not an issue for me. you could get through with what you got (50 1.4, no groups, but nice shots of the baby, and a high iso tripod shot of the group inside then more after the ceremony, in a better lit locale.
you will find it worth your money to grab the flash instead of the glass this time around.

multiple portable flash units (3 or more) is the way to go.
I use mine on manfrotto clamps or putty knives or lightstands.
grab a cheap white plastic cup to set on top of the flash to create a "bare bulb" effect (actually quite soft ligh up close).

put them all on manual and at half power (to start) one in each of three corners of a room. use slower shutter speeds.

arrange your groups away from the walls and with one light behind and two in front (your back towards the one corner with no flash unit).

the trick is to have enough flash to freeze subject motion, and color balane subjects, and enough ambient to get everything else and warm the image up.
use a tri or mono pod.

try 1/30 sec or 1/15 sec exposures and iso 200-400

remember, faster lenses have less dof, at wider apertures and require stopping down to get groupshots, anyways, so f1.4-f2.8 won't be usable at all.

I went with the latest intuos tablet. I like it, but to be honest, when I started out with the graphire sreies, I wasn't experianced with tablets, and so wouldn't have noticed the differences between the intuos and graphire series. but now that I have an intuos (the bamboo is basically a restyle of the graphire with a few extra buttons and a touchpad) I can tell the pen is twice as sensitive, esp with larger screens.

So the bamboo is a great choice if you are starting out, but the intuos is worth a little more... if you get either you'll be happy.

see? they were nuts.
had I been there....
I wouldn't have wasted time trying to make a radio out of coconuts, I'd've made rum and filled those suckers with pina colada's. Ginger and Maryanne woulda' got doubles, and( shortchanged on grass for thier skirts,) mini-skirts and after two weeks of fun in the sun, on my own private (clothing optional) beach...
I would've killed Gilligan and gotten off the Island on the first try.

there are still people doing daguiretypes (spell check please) and glass plates.
the question is WHEN will you wind up mixing up your own emulsion, and coating your own film strips before developing them in your bathroom......

concur about the 18-250. totally.
an affordable 300 2.8 and a new af teleconverter & extension tube set would tilckle me in all the right places!

my favorite ring shot is to have the hands holding a Bible, open to Corinthians, and have the ring sitting on the pages with the light casiting a heart shaped shadow on the Bible.
I posted one before, so no point in doing so again.