I'm going to a friend's birthday celebration in a few days time, and I'll be bringing my Nikon d40x (and probably SB-400 flash unit) along.

My question is, when the light is switched off (or very dim), everyone's singing to the birthday song while the birthday boy is going to blow out the candles, how to capture that "candle blowing" moment and mood perfectly?

If I use direct flash, the result would be harsh for sure. If I use bounced flash, it would seem to be too bright and kills the mood of the photo. If I don't use flash at all, with my current lens (f3.5 max), i'd definitely need at the fastest 1/10 seconds, which would be long enough to produce blurry photos (with sudden movements from the subjects).

Anyone have tips to share? Or which would be the best setting/choice that I should use?