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That's not a bad way to look at it. More mathematically, the energy of an electric dipole with dipole moment $\mathbf p$ in an electric field $\mathbf E$ is $$ U = -\mathbf p\cdot\mathbf E = -|\mathbf p||\mathbf E|\cos\theta $$ This expression is minimized when $\cos\theta = 1$, which is when the angle between the dipole moment vector (which for a physical dipole points from the negative to the positive charge) and the field is $0$. This is precisely the condition for the dipole to be aligned with the electric field as you described.