I'm looking to find out which wife has the most to say in general. I want as full a character as possible to be married to.
I understand that the Dunmer student at the College is fairly talkative and Ysolda is involved in a couple quests.

Meh.....

None of the wives have a deep personality, I prefer Jordis soley because of how cute and girly her voice and appearance is.

ehh, they all have the same devoted will-do-anything to make The Lord of the Manor mentallity. In the end, they're essentially domestic servant.

Jordis, Brelyna and Ysolda share voice actress, so they should have exactly the same marriage dialogue. One of my characters married Brelyna, she's very sweet and adorable as a wife. Another married Sapphire (with mods, but she has the same dialogue as Senna and maybe someone else), but she has more of an attitude, don't like to be asked to cook and so on.

No spouse has more marriage related dialogue than the others. Some (like the hirelings) even lose their random pvssyr when you marry them and grow more silent.

Unfortunately, NPCs have a habit of adopting rather one-dimensional personalities after being married. Some followers, such as hirelings, will retain their dialogue after being married; however, most are overwritten by the spousal greetings and misc. marriage dialogue. Mjoll the Lioness is fairly talkative and will retain her random lines, but I don't know of any others off the top of my head, aside from the aforementioned hirelings.

I sit corrected; that's unfortunate.

Mjoll... shut the [censored] up Mjoll.

I mean their personality before the marriage as much as after.
I understand that all the wives seem to turn into drones.

The marriage dialogue is simple, I'll give you that. But it doesn't take away everything else she is.

Mjoll the Lioness, Aela and Brelyna are some of those who do have their own personality. The adventurer with a Strong sense of justice, the hot blooded huntress and the apprentice mage with ties to House Telvanni.

I dislike housecarls because they truly are personality less robots.

Brelyna! That was her name.
Yes, she is the one I am considering.

I hear you on the housecarl point though Lydia has a sort of personality shining through a little (all be it an annoying one).

Anyhow, your wife regains her normal personality and lines when travelling with you as a follower.

Groovy. Well, thanks everyone.
I'm going to go with Brelyna.

Now my task will be to find a mod that will make her look a little younger but still lore-friendly. *sigh* I'm so picky.

I can tell you who NOT to marry. Mjoll, Muiri and Camilla just for the simple reason that Camilla and Muiri are quest related. Meaning that months and months after you complete their respective quests, theyre still thanking you. It gets old after awhile. And if you marry Mjoll, you have to worry about Aerin moving in as well. I ended up taking him out right away. Just saying.

I like Ysolda probably as my favorite wife.

I'm one phone so open up Nexus to link takes forever, but if you want lore-friendly I recommend Coverwomen opt 4 + Women of Skyrim Enhanced Normalmaps (or any other facemod of your prefence combined with Women of Skyrim). She WILL still have the Dunmer racial features such as wrinkled skin and brow ridges, but they will be a little less prominent, especially with another face mod (since they tend to smooth out the skin completely).

If you want to see an example, check out the Hottest Woman poll thread for the modded characters, somewhere there I have posted examples of my Dunmer with modded face but with and without the enhanced normalmaps, and also a vanilla picture, for comparison.

Many like Ethereal Elven Overhaul, but I think it takes away too much of the original look of the elves.

Wives have personality and dialogue? I want to play the game your playing!

Hahaha. I think I tend to let them away with more than I should because I'm so used to compensating things with my imagination, mainly because I'm never happy. xD I want the moon on a stick.
However, I think it's definitely true that the marriage aspect to skyrim is lacking.

I married the Dark Elf follower from 'The Drunken Huntsman' in Whiterun. She was pretty cool.

Their unwed selves do.

You don't need someone to give ideas who to marry. Look for someone that matches your character's personality. My Redguard character on PC married Nazeem, because his personality and her intelligent wits are a perfect match... And they go to the Cloud District often.

This.

My character married Mjoll, and I have no regrets. Aerin only ever shows up when I dismiss her to my house (currently Breezehome), and doesn't always hang around, often wandering around Whiterun. Otherwise, Mjoll's personality matches that of my character (and who are we kidding--my own as well), and while I'd love for all the NPCs to have more personality, what's there is fitting.

The poor woman. But if she's happy...

Good choice with Brelyna. She's adorable.

Find the most quiet one who happily cooks and carries your burdens for you

Jordis.

Sylgja, same voice actress as Jordis and Ysolda, my favourite for marriage dialogue. I first went to Shor's Stone considering marrying her, after the conversation I decided she was who I wanted, she appears to be a very caring person, the perfect mother for Sofie. Certainly not a drug dealer like Ysolda.

With my current character I'm planning to make a mace from the ebony in the Shor's Stone mine, make it my main weapon, kind of a reminder of how we met.

Mom ha