What to wear?

A major disadvantage of many wetsuits is that they don't have a pee zipper, and it would be rather inconvenient to peel down a wetsuit enough to pee while you're on the water in a kayak.  The solution traditionally adopted by divers is to pee into the wetsuit, which has the advantage of warming up your skin in the groinal area for a while, but the disadvantage of being kind of yucky, particularly if you are sitting in a kayak and the only liquid in your wetsuit is pee.

I find wetsuits uncomfortable, so I wear a drysuit when the water temperature is low enough to create a hypothermia risk if I end up in the water for more than a couple of minutes.  If the air temperature is warm, I splash water on the drysuit to cool off, or even slide into the water and practice re-entering my kayak.

Check out the Stolhquist EZ Drysuit for $373.99 at Austin Kayak.  You can get an extra 10% off if you use their email discount code.  I've never owned one and it seems like a good entry level drysuit.  Or you can save up and get a Kokatat angler dysuit which has better materials with cordura sewn around high wear areas.

What pmmpete said.

If you can afford it, go for a drysuit. I've got a kokatat gore-tex version and on the ocean, it's good up to an air temp of about 70 degrees (depending somewhat on wind and sun). Above that, I start to feel like I'm basting in my own juices...

I installed a zipper in my wetsuit. Its not difficult.

Making the choice usually ends up in personal preference, just don't sacrifice safety. You'll probably eventually have 2-3 different outfits.

I use a Kokatat drysuit most of the time and paddle pants (plus whatever top) for the warm weather lakes and rivers. I don't usually like the wet suit because I don't like having a wet okole.

Good luck.