@Amber:
Welcome to the forum!
I've been towing for over 50 years and have seen many accidents that involved Tow Vehicles (TV) that were not suited to tow the trailer they were asked to tow. Each of the above posts relay good information, but without having tow experience it may be difficult to really understand what is being conveyed.
Bottom line is that your TV must have both the power, weight, chassis (Frame,
tires, wheel base, etc) and very importantly the stopping power to deal with conditions unique to towing.
POWER: If your TV is under-powered, you will quickly grow to dislike hills and hate mountains. More importantly, you will destroy your vehicle's power trane in short order usually due to overheating.
WEIGHT: If your TV is too
light, it is MUCH easier for your trailer to take control of your life. Often ending up in a tragic accident. You need the weight of your TV to help keep your rig going in the proper direction every time a truck passes you or a wind gust broadsides your rig.
CHASSIS: If your TV is not designed for the load your are trying to pull, then you will find yourself on the side of the highway a lot. Problems will be with blown shocks, rear wheel bearings, leaf/coil springs, and front end components. Most often will be with
tires that all of a sudden catastrophically fail. Failure of chassis components almost always leads to a "Hair Raising Ride".
BRAKES: The
brakes on overloaded TV's will first talk to you by shaking the steering wheel when applied. This is from being overheated and the result is warping of the rotors/drums. I am sure you have smelled the acrid smell of overheated brakes from a vehicle ahead of you on a down mountain run. Most parking brakes will pretty much be useless when you lose brakes on a down hill run with an over loaded TV.
For your vehicle, I would not recommend much more than a trailer of 1,000 pounds. This will leave you with some capability for a driver and a passenger and some gear as well. With this load limit recommendation, a small pop-up camper would likely be your best choice.
In summary, as a rule of thumb, for your safety, and of those with you or around you, please do not exceed the 50% to 70% rating recommended above. As a first time TV/Trailer owner, personally I recommend that you not go over 60% of the max for your TV max rating.
We all wish you well.