If you only have two pictures downsizing them shouldn't take too long.
The original picture may be for example 6000 x 4000 and 16-20mp, or something like that. You could resize to 1500 x 1000 and save as quality 8 rather than 12 and maybe get down to under 1mp. Would that be small enough?
I have PS2023 so the button pressing will be different but the resizing in my software is under "Image" in the drop down menu and then "Image Size."
Then under "File" in the drop down menu select "Save As" and after entering the filename and "Save" I can then enter the quality and select something smaller than "12" which in my software is the maximum.
I've just tried the above and it took a 17mp picture down to 400kb so maybe you could do less resizing or up the quality and still end up with a small enough image.
Sorry I'm using PS and not Elements but even so I hope that helps a bit and you can work it out from that.
PS.
Remember to save the resized picture in a different location or as a different name so that you don't over write your original file.