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In a nutshell, 27 Dresses is the story of a perpetual bridesmaid named Jane (Katherine Heigl); George (Edward Burns), her boss and the man she has loved for years; Tess (Malin Akerman), her sister and the woman who snags George in one night; and Kevin (James Marsden), a handsome reporter who runs into Jane and walks away with more of a story than he bargained for.

It’s Runaway Bride turned upside down and dealt a slight shift in its timeline. It’s My Best Friend’s Wedding if Kimmy were Jules’ sister, Michael Jules’ boss, and Jules less commitment shy and conniving and more commitment hungry and people pleasing. And like those with which it shares its genre, 27 Dresses is also cute, funny, and romantic. Heigl, Marsden, and Akerman deliver laughable lines and comic scenes throughout the entire movie. And by the end, both its stars and its story have created a chemistry that sends you away with a smile, a stronger belief in love, and crush on its leading man.

But even though James Marsden’s Kevin may be my newest movie crush of the year, I have to say that the strongest aspect of 27 Dresses is not that it makes us fall in love with its male stars; it is that it allows us to fall in step with every one of its characters. It lets us see that we are not alone in the struggle to find love. It reminds us that we are not the only ones who stumble through confusing realities and warped beliefs in its pursuit. And it shows us that no matter how complicated and messy our search for love may become, our desire to have it in our lives is not unfounded.

I don’t know about you, but Jane and I, we have a few things in common. The first one being that somewhere in the back our heads we believe that true love will just happen if only we stick around long enough. And the result of that belief—falling for one man, pouring ourselves into being there for him in every way we can, and believing it’s just a matter of time before he will fall for us too.

The first problem—most men aren’t capable of reading our minds. As Jane’s friend Casey says, “This your life. This is not a fantasy. You have go over there and tell him how you feel.”

The second problem—as much as I would like to believe in the intelligence of my own logic and feelings, I know that reality doesn’t always live up to expectations, and in the end, it is often that which we never would have expected which does.

But even with that knowledge, Jane and I still have some issues. As Kevin knows, there is something behind Jane’s always-a-bridesmaid lifestyle that isn’t quite right. And as we see Jane’s enthusiastic devotion to the many brides in her life right up next to the over-the-top efforts she gives to George every day at work, the bigger problem becomes that Jane and I also seem to hold a belief that we must earn any love we get.

As Jane tells Kevin, she has a good time being there for her friends on their wedding days. But one day, she hopes that they will also be there for her. And as I saw even the most sincere of Jane’s actions as very real ways of her trying prove herself worthy of the love of others, I have to say, it put my own workaholic ways in a new light.

If Jane isn’t a clear enough example of our concept of love as something we must earn, there’s also Tess. Jane may not even recognize what she is doing herself, but Tess is fully aware that she is trying to earn love. Her whole relationship with George is based on lies crafted to meet exactly what she believes George wants. And when Jane finally calls her bluff, Tess’ words say it all, “I wanted to be someone he wanted, someone who deserved him.”

But as reality shows both Jane and Tess, love actually ends up being more about who we are when we are not trying than who we are when are. It knows our faults, and it accepts them. It sees our rain soaked moments, and it embraces them. And standing at the end of the aisle as we come to meet it, love sees us for everything we are and beams with pride.

At one point in the movie, both Jane and Kevin reveal that their favorite part of weddings is watching the groom as he watches his bride come down the aisle. Even though Kevin has been reluctant to believe in love since it broke his heart, that look is something that makes him think he might be able to believe in it again. Even though Jane has spent years going to weddings without ever finding love herself, I would venture to guess that look is one of the things that keeps her believing that someday she will. And as a woman who also shares the same favorite wedding moment, that look is both of those things to me and more.

Like Jane, I sometimes wonder if I will ever find love. Like Kevin, I have dealt with my fair share of situations and realities that have made wonder if love even exists. But as Jane says at the end of the movie, “The only thing that mattered to me was the person waiting for me at the end of the aisle, and he was looking at me the way I had always hoped.” And while I’ve never had an actual man ready and waiting for me at the end of any aisle, I know that I’ve always had God.

His love is one that has known me since before I was born. It knows my darkest secrets and has been with me during my lowest times. It knows my best, and it also knows my worst. And throughout it all, even when I have doubted him, I know that God has continued to love me more than anyone else on this earth.

In Isaiah 62:5, Isaiah writes, “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” And just knowing that simple truth, I say, bring on the 27 bridesmaids dresses. Because even though a part of me will always want to be the bride, I know that in the eyes of God, I already am.