When are we supposed to start talking to home lenders?

I’m getting married the end of this month, and we are hoping to buy a house sometime spring-fall next year. We are counting on our tax return for majority of our downpayment (doing first time home buyers so only need 3.5% plus closing, etc) we get our tax returns always around the end of February as we file early. We are wanting to start talking to lenders now to give them our income and everything, just to see if there’s anything we need to do beforehand, but is it too early? If we found a good deal we’d even move out March-April. Is it appropriate to begin talking to lenders now?