This isn't something I ever have to do, but I can give you a few suggestions until someone comes along with a better solution
3mb for a scanned five page document doesn't seem to extreme too me, but you should be able to get it quite a bit smaller. Definitely save as PDF if you can, Word is terrible at compressing images. A PDF should be quite a bit smaller, and your scanner should have the option to save as PDF.
Your scanner should also have quality level options, same as a printer, so you can choose how detailed the scan is - it may be labelled as "draft", "normal", "best" like a printer, or alternatively it may be a change in resolution in which case there will be a setting for "dpi" (dots per inch). Try altering this when you scan - if it is "dpi", then a lower number will be a smaller file size.
If you're still stuck, an easy option is to compress/zip/archive the Word file yourself. If you're using Windows XP, then from memory there is a "Add to Archive/Zip" option when you right click a file in Windows Explorer. Otherwise, download a copy of "Winzip"
http://www.winzip.com/downwz.htm, and use that to zip it. It will probably reduce the file to about a tenth of the size. Of course, they'll have to unzip it at the other side, but it will bypass any attachment size limitations in your or their email systems. If they don't have/won't use Winzip, there is an option to create the zip file as a "self-extracting archive", which basically means they can double click the file and it will unzip itself.
For the photos, rather than taking a photo of them, can't you just scan them in? It will be a lot better quality.
Hope this helps until someone has a better suggestion!
Michael
