You have to either
- use faster lenses, or
- embrace higher ISO settings, or
- use a more powerful flashgun, or
- work in smaller rooms with brighter walls, or
- accept more of a direct flash look

or a combination of those.

For indoor use, f4 @ 800 ISO is easily achievable when bouncing flash behind you.
So the techniques still work.

Ok Neil thank you. Smaller rooms and brighter walls is out when you do weddings in large churches and reception halls, more powerful flashgun is out, I use the 580exII, anything more would be the cost of a fast lens, direct flash is an option I'd rather stay away from if at all possible but will use if I have to..Higher ISO settings then seems the more viable option. At the moment I use ISO 800 with FEC +1.

In your case I would take a look at Canon's 85mm 1.8 lens which is awesome and not so expensive.

I'd second that suggestion ... the Canon 85mm f1.8 is a very sweet lens.
Inexpensive, with superb quality and lightning fast AF. Unbeatable value.

That looks pretty good, shucks, I'm trying to get a 24mm 2.8 for wide angle for less than $200 so the 85 1.8 is very much out of my price range at the moment but thanks for the lead.

Over at fredmiranda.com, the Canon 24mm2.8 has an 8.6 rating whereas the 85mm1.8 has a 9.4. Of course with such different focal lengths they do very different jobs (and the ratings are people who have chosen to own each particular lens -- a different sample of photogs), but if the goal is to build a quality set of lenses, the 85 1.8 rises toward the top in the under-$500 price bracket. (I own one and enjoy it a lot!)

Just another option to the 85 1.8. The new Canon 100 Macro L IS. 2.8 and you get IS. The MTF charts show that the 100 at 2.8 is just as sharp as the 85 stopped down to 2.8 and you get a Marco lens as well.

I ended up as a big blessing from my wife, getting the 24-70 2.8 L Love the sharpness and the way it handles light. Thanks to all the responses.