I agree with a lot of the points made here, though my general preference is to stick with light armor. I find, that way, I get great protection from the Elven aspect, with nearly 1/10 the weight of heavy armor, and that's just more loot I can carry. If you choose heavy, though, then you can start right out with steel and the only perk you really need to spend is Arcane.
The steed stone, as Colleen mentioned, does increase your carry weight to help with the armor, but then you don't get the benefit of other stones, which is one reason I choose light armor. In the early levels, when I can be killed by butterflies, I get myself to the Lord stone as soon as possible, which gives me both additional damage resistance and magic resistance. This helps greatly, believe me. Later, when my armor rating can stand on its own, I usually switch to the Lover, for quicker skill leveling, but that 50 points and 25% magic resist really saves my bacon.
My recommendation would be to stay light, hit the elven perk and smith, smith, smith. Loot everything and sell it all for moonstone ore and a little quicksilver, and and you'll have a good, solid armor base with light weight, in no time. Don't forget to put perks in your armor tree, be it light or heavy. The initial 1-5 make the most impact, though some of the others come in handy, like bonuses for wearing all one type.
For money, if you find yourself with an extra perk, you can drop it into Dwarven and make bows, but you can make just as much (or more) by making high-dollar potions. Google a list of potions/values, and collect every ingredient you can. Crank them out and sell them for more ingredients, etc.
The quickest way I've found for smithing, lately, is jewelry, but some of the higher dollar armors can raise the bar a little bit. Remember to sleep first, so you're well rested and your levels will respond accordingly.