Receptions are generally harder to photograph than the weddings themselves. During a normal wedding ceremony - you know what to expect and you should know where to be standing for most shots.
During the reception, you need to light a room with enough fill light so that it can be adjusted in photoshop to not give off the "face in a cave" look to your pictures. You need to be in the right spot at the right time, and you need to limit the amount of pictures that you take. A flash going off every 2 seconds for 5 hours will get annoying fast.
Unless you are getting a lot of business staying independent, you should try and join up with a local wedding photography company. The steadiness of jobs outweighs the little bit of extra money per gig.
I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin so I shoot with
http://www.arirosenthalphotography.com when I do weddings.